Gellért Hill has no opening hours. It is open ground with no gate, no ticket desk and nothing to close, and you can walk up at four in the morning if the idea appeals.
Everything on it is another matter, and there are three timetables rather than one. The Citadella park inside the fortress walls keeps seasonal hours. The Bastion of Liberty exhibition keeps its own, with a late Friday and a published last entry. The Cave Church at the foot of the hill shuts all day on Sunday and again for Mass every afternoon. This page puts them side by side, says when the hill is at its best, and covers how long to give it.
Gellért Hill opening hours
Gellért Hill (free)
| Monday | 00:00-24:00 |
| Tuesday | 00:00-24:00 |
| Wednesday | 00:00-24:00 |
| Thursday | 00:00-24:00 |
| Friday | 00:00-24:00 |
| Saturday | 00:00-24:00 |
| Sunday | 00:00-24:00 |
Open hillside with no gate. The paths, the lookouts, the Liberty Statue and the St Gellért monument can be reached at any hour, all year.
Citadella park, April to October (free)
| Monday | 06:00-24:00 |
| Tuesday | 06:00-24:00 |
| Wednesday | 06:00-24:00 |
| Thursday | 06:00-24:00 |
| Friday | 06:00-24:00 |
| Saturday | 06:00-24:00 |
| Sunday | 06:00-24:00 |
The park inside the fortress walls, with the wall-walks and the bastion lookouts. Free, with no ticket.
Citadella park, November to March (free)
| Monday | 08:00-22:00 |
| Tuesday | 08:00-22:00 |
| Wednesday | 08:00-22:00 |
| Thursday | 08:00-22:00 |
| Friday | 08:00-22:00 |
| Saturday | 08:00-22:00 |
| Sunday | 08:00-22:00 |
The same park on winter hours. Free, with no ticket.
The Bastion of Liberty exhibition
| Monday | 10:00-18:00 |
| Tuesday | 10:00-18:00 |
| Wednesday | 10:00-18:00 |
| Thursday | 10:00-18:00 |
| Friday | 12:00-20:00 |
| Saturday | 10:00-18:00 |
| Sunday | 10:00-18:00 |
Timed slots every 20 minutes, up to 40 people each. Last entry on Fridays at 18:40 and on other days at 16:40.
Cave Church
| Monday | 09:30-19:30 |
| Tuesday | 09:30-19:30 |
| Wednesday | 09:30-19:30 |
| Thursday | 09:30-19:30 |
| Friday | 09:30-19:30 |
| Saturday | 09:30-19:30 |
| Sunday | Closed |
At the foot of the hill, by the Gellért Hotel. Closed to visitors during the Mass that begins at 17:00 every day.
The park’s two seasons are the thing to carry in your head. From April to October the fortress gates are open from six in the morning until midnight, and from November to March that shrinks to eight until ten. The hill itself does not change.
Best times to visit Gellért Hill
Time of day
Early morning is the hour for the climb. The paths are empty, the south face has not had the sun on it yet, and the lookouts are yours.
The hour before sunset is the one for the view, and it is busy for that reason. You get the city in daylight and then watch it switch over to its floodlit version without moving. In summer that is late enough to want a plan for getting back down before you walk up.
The middle of the day is the one to avoid in summer. The climb has very little shade on the southern side, and the terraces round the Liberty Statue are stone.
Day of the week
The hill is at its quietest on weekday mornings. Weekend afternoons bring families, tour groups and the hop-on hop-off buses up Szirtes út together.
Friday is the odd one out at the exhibition, opening at noon rather than ten and staying open until eight, which makes a Friday evening the easiest slot to get at short notice. Sunday is the day to leave the Cave Church alone.
Season
Autumn is the best of it. The slopes turn and the air is clear enough to see the Buda hills from the bastions, and the park is still on summer hours until the end of October.
Winter trades the greenery for a longer evening of floodlighting and short, cold hours in the park, which closes at ten. Summer gives you the longest day and the hardest climb, and spring is when the new planting in the Citadella park actually looks like a garden.
How long to spend on Gellért Hill
An hour
Up by bus 27 or on foot, round the free lookouts and the Liberty Statue, and back down. Enough for the view and nothing else.
Two to three hours
The climb from the river with a stop at the St Gellért monument, the fortress park and the wall-walk, then down the other side. What we would plan for.
Half a day
Add the Bastion of Liberty exhibition on a booked slot and the Cave Church at the bottom. They sit at opposite ends of the hill, so leave time between them.
An evening
Come up for the last hour of light, stay for the floodlighting, and walk down to Szent Gellért tér for the metro. The park is open until midnight in summer.