Budapest, including the Banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter and Andrássy Avenue

• Large scale reconstruction
• Building heights and regulations
• Demolition and inappropriate development in the buffer zone known as the ‘Jewish Quarter’
• Inappropriate use of public areas and street amenities
• Lack of conservation of residential housing in the area inscribed as World Heritage
• Effects arising from use of transportation infrastructure (increased traffic volume)
• Management Plan Systems/Management Plan
• Legal framework
• Identity, social cohesion, changes in local population and community
• Housing

Total amount provided: 800 million HUF (ca. 2.7 million EUR) EU support for the “Street of Culture” project 

On 1 February 2022, the State Party submitted a state of conservation report, the summary of which is available at https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/400/documents/. The report, together with an update received in March 2023, provide information on the measures implemented by the State Party in response to the decision adopted by the World Heritage Committee at its extended 44th session (Fuzhou/online, 2021), as follows:

• Several modifications to legal instruments were introduced, including to the World Heritage Act, the Government Decree on World Heritage Sites Designation Procedure, Content Requirements and Drafting Procedures for World Heritage Management Plans, and the Pre-emptive Rights in the World Heritage Property (World Heritage Decree). At the end of 2021, new amendments were introduced, including to the World Heritage Design Guide, the Hungarian World Heritage Council, and the World Heritage Complex Impact Assessment. The World Heritage Design Guide for Budapest is in preparation;
• A new regulation regarding the World Heritage Complex Impact Assessment was adopted that relates to heritage and visual impact assessments being requested prior to an intervention to assess potential impacts on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) during the permitting phase in cases where the impact on the OUV cannot be ascertained based on the available documentation. The Heritage Impact Assessments (HIA) will be prepared based on the ICOMOS Guidance on Heritage Impact Assessments for Cultural World Heritage Properties (2011) and the Visual Impact Assessments (VIA) need to be carried out using adequate tools, including geoinformation based programmes;
• The preparation of the Management Plan has progressed. A chapter on the National Hauszmann Programme (NHP) will be included in the Management Plan. Public consultations are part of the preparation of the management plan;
• The State Party stresses once again the ‘ideological basis’ of the NHP and recalls the research conducted by the VERITAS Historical Research Institute that the NHP reflects the ‘national identity’. It is stated that all relevant documents related to the NHP had already been provided, and that neither individual projects nor the NHP have negative impacts on the OUV, nor on the authenticity and integrity of the property;
• Following the development of the online platform, ‘Budapest World Heritage Attribute System’, which aims to observe and analyse the OUV of the property, attribute-groups of the property have been identified and potential value-bearing buildings and urban structures have been listed on the system. The adaptation of the attribute-groups should offer a framework to discuss conservation issues. The assessment of the state of buildings and their photo documentation has commenced. A further survey is planned for 2022;
• The State Party is planning to develop rules and procedures for the protection and management of the OUV and monitoring tools in line with Chapter II.F of the Operational Guidelines;
• Two online meetings were held, on 28 January and 28 March 2022, in the framework of the ICOMOS advisory assistance on the Buda Castle Quarter, which the Committee requested the State Party to initiate as a matter of urgency. The State Party expresses its commitment to continue to benefit from this assistance and its intention to finalise the establishment of the corresponding contract with ICOMOS International;
• In January 2022, the Hungarian World Heritage Council was established, a body which shall support the work of the Prime Minister’s Office. The council, composed of experts in the field of heritage protection, works to ensure that World Heritage properties in Hungary are given priority protection;
• The building of the Hungarian Opera House underwent a full monumental reconstruction, completed in March 2022 and complemented by the collection of photogrammetric and laser scanning data. 2D and 3D spatial data was developed also for a number of other buildings within the property.

Since the extended 44th session of the World Heritage Committee, the World Heritage Centre has received information from third parties concerning the potential modification of the citadel within the boundaries of the property and planned developments that might negatively impact on the Budapest skyline. The information was transmitted to the State Party, in line with Paragraph 174 of the Operational Guidelines, on 1 March 2022 and 27 February 2023 respectively. At the time of writing this report, the State Party has not provided the World Heritage Centre with any clarification regarding the third-party information.