Széchenyi Chain Bridge in the Top 10 Most Beautiful Bridges of the World!

In the heart of Hungary’s capital city, Budapest, one of the most beautiful gems of the city is the 170-years-old Széchenyi Chain Bridge. Being located between the Buda Castle and the Hungarian Parliament Building, the whole area together makes a picturesque prospect around river Danube, especially at night. A Californian architecture and design website ranked the 18 most beautiful bridges in the world. The one from Budapest is in the top ten!

We can observe eighteen of the most amazing bridges if we read architecturaldigest.com’s article. They show us creative, romantic and very popular ones from the world that are considered to be the nicest ones.

The bridge’s brief history

Széchenyi Chain Bridge has a history reaching far back beyond in the past, a hundred and seventy years, to be accurate (1839). The idea of building the first stone bridge between Buda and Pest was by earl István Széchenyi, hence its name, while the designer was the British engineer William Tierney Clark. The constructions lasted for 10 years, from 1839 to 1849, even during the Hungarian revolution in 1848-49. At the first couple of years, even the nobility had to pay fees for crossing the new bridge, which they have not actually liked.

Chain Bridge (1948) FORTEPAN by István Mihalik

In World War II, the bridge suffered major damages and had to be rebuilt in 1949. Since then, smaller maintenance works have been carried out, and there is still a serious refurbishment to be made in autumn 2019, the pavement and bicycle lane will be broadened. The nation’s favourite bridge will be wider, the tunnel opposite to it will have new concrete walls with renewed mosaic tiles.

Chain Bridge is the 9th most beautiful of them all

Among the eight wonderful bridges of Budapest, this one is considered to be the most beautiful and most famous. It worths to have a walk around it and look closely at the ‘guards’ of the bridge: the four lion-statues, lying in front of the ‘Lánchíd’ as Hungarians call the bridge. As the American article says bridges are fantastic because ‘not only are they looking spectacular but they are also useful for the public’, and anyone can use it, unlike skyscrapers with limited entrance or business centres. Bridges are simply everyone’s whose using it.

The list of the 10 most beautiful bridges in the world according to Architectural Digest:

1. Henderson Waves Bridge (Singapore)

2. Seri Wawasan Bridge (Putrajaya, Malaysia)

3. Puente de la Mujer (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

4. Nescio Bridge (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

5. Rialto Bridge (Venice, Italy)

6. Zubizuri (Bilbao, Spain)

7. Manhattan Bridge (New York City, U.S.A.)

8. Sheikh Zayed Bridge (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates)

9. Széchenyi Chain Bridge (Budapest, Hungary)

10. Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco, U.S.A.)

Featured image: Bódis Krisztián / Budapest Images

Source: architecturaldigest.com