Budapest’s Historic Nyugati Train Station

Last updated on October 6th, 2023

The Nyugati Train Station is one of Budapest’s most iconic buildings: its monumental yet elegant iron and glass facade stands out among the brick buildings of the centre of Budapest. The station was built by the Eiffel company on the site where from Hungary’s first train rail line started off in 1846. Its innovative iron structure counted as a technical miracle back then when it was finished in the day of steam engines in 1877. Not a lot of change has happened to this building over the centuries, making it ideal for period pieces. The colorful and grandiose main hall with its beautiful iron structure could double as a station set in any point of the last few hundred years. The grandiose hall takes us back to the elegance of the golden age of Hungary, but that is nothing compared to the extraordinarily pompous and ornate royal waiting room, which looks like the interior of a baroque church. Next to all this, the side corridors form a more airy, tranquil spot, with a rich variation of textures; wood panelling, huge glass windows, marble floor and brick walls. The soviet era aesthetic waiting rooms and the international ticket office makes the atmosphere more playful with its colourful fiberglass chairs. This diversity is what makes this location so popular among both filmmakers and photographers.

This atmospheric side corridor is rich in sophisticated textures

Completed in 1877, the iron structure was a state-of-the-art architectural solution

A reminder of Hungary’s royal past; an extraordinarily ornate waiting room

The quirky side hall is perfect for a colour coded shoot

A truly elegant ticket hall with an extraordinarily high ceiling and an ochre colour scheme

This retro, soviet era waiting room is perfect for a playful interior with its yellow seats

Nyugati Train Station

Many important films have used this station as a location. Steven Spielberg filmed scenes for his 2005 movie Münich here. Brad Pitt and Robert Redford worked together in the Nyugati to create the 2001 thriller, Spy Game. Sunshine starring Ralph Fiennes was shot here too and Jennifer Connelly also played here in Étoile in 1988. The station has doubled as one in Buenos Aires in Evita, as a nazi station in the 2008 film Good, as a station in Moscow in A Good Day to Die and as a Parisian station in the series Maigret Sets a Trap. It has even been used as a fictional location of a werewolf attack in the 2003 movie Underworld. Progressive Productions has also shot in this exceptional location several times, for example the catalogue shoot for the British clothing brand, Boden and another photo shoot for the German fashion brand, Brax as well as a shoot for FedEx.