The Elizabeth Lookout is situated on the highest point of Budapest, 527 metres above sea-level. The highest mountain peak of the city, the János Hill was also called Pozsonyi Hill in the 19th century, and has only been baptised János Hill (Johannesberg) during the course of the 20th century.
The mountain peak, where a lookout (gloriette) made of wood was standing in the second half of the 19th century – has always been a favourite destination of the mountain hikers.
In 1882, Queen Elizabeth has admired the spectacular panorama from this building on several occasions. This was when the idea to build the Elizabeth Lookout was born, and which resulted in its construction in the first decade of the 20th century.
As none of the presented plans have persuaded the city governors of the time, they have decided to launch a tender in this regard. Frigyes Schulek, the elderly and well-known engineering professor, was asked to be the reviewer of these tenders. At the time, the ideal for the capital was the conservative architecture of the Fishermen’s Bastion, which has also been designed by him. At the end, the tender has not been published, and Frigyes Schulek undertook the role to helping redoing the existing plans. Pál Klunzinger, the architect of the Engineering Authority, presented the new plans, made under the supervision of Professor Frigyes Schulek, in 1906.
The constructions began on 12 June 1908.
The stones were brought from Pilisborosjenő, Budakalász and Dunaharszti, and approximately forty thousand bricks, three hundred carriages of sand and the same amount of cement were used for the constructions. The graven rocks were furnished by Gyula Král, the sculptures were made by Ferenc Mikola and the woodwork was carried out by Antal Wachter. The bust of Queen Elizabeth, made by Alajos Strób, is situated in one of the booths of the decorative ambulatory of the ground floor, and the glass mosaic made on the basis of the plans of Krenner and Klöber by Miksa Róth may be seen in its background.
The almost finished lookout was ceremoniously handed over to the public on 9 November 1910.
By 20 August 1926, several important monuments of the capital have been equipped with spotlighting. Dazzle lights illuminated the Royal Castle from the Chain Bridge, the Gellért Hill from the Elizabeth Bridge, as well as the Elizabeth Lookout, which has been equipped with spotlights at this time and thus became the first illuminated building of the country.
The Lookout has been closed in 1981, in reason of the bad technical state of the building.
In 2001, after several years of uncertainty, the capital gave the ownership of the property to the XII. District Municipality, with the condition of the obligation to perform all renovation works on it. This has been done between 2001 and 2005.
Both in winter and summer, the Lookout offers a splendid view on Budapest and its surroundings, and when the weather is clear, the mountain peaks as far away as 77 kilometres can also be seen. The Lookout Tower is 23.5 metres high and has a terrace-structure. It has six floors, the diameter of which decreases with the height. The first two floors are closed, the next three floors have a round panorama terrace each, and the highest floor is completely open.
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