The Little Princess and Friends: A Bronze Safari for Kids in District V

Five Budapest statues hide within about 850 m of Cookie Beacon Basilica, our brunch spot on Hercegprímás utca, and this kids’ hunt finds them all: the Fat Policeman, a fist-sized bronze Kermit, the Danubius Fountain, the Girl with Her Dog and the Little Princess on the Danube railing, plus a scruffy little sea captain on the side quest. Measured point to point, the loop is about 2.8 km and the streets add more, so open it in Google Maps for the walking time. Every stop is outdoors and free, so there is no day of the week to avoid.

The game is statue stamps. Like the stamps hikers collect in a trail booklet, you collect one at each statue by doing the small thing the statue “asks” for. Draw five boxes on a piece of paper, one for each statue, plus a bonus box for the side quest. Tick a box when the job is done.

Budapest statues route at a glance

All distances are straight-line metres between OpenStreetMap points, so real walking distances are longer. Nobody from our team has walked and timed this route yet; the Google Maps link above has the whole loop and the walking time. The side quest adds about 338 m in straight lines.

Base camp

Every expedition needs a base camp, a place to set out from and come home to. This one is the brunch spot at Hercegprímás u. 15, open Monday to Friday 08:00 to 17:00 and Saturday and Sunday 09:00 to 17:00. Statue hunting is hungry work. For small hunters, the Cookie Berry Bowl (a red-berry smoothie bowl with banana) or the Pistachio & Berries French Toast; for the grown-ups, the Grilled-Cheese Waffle-Sandwich. Drinks: the S’mores Hot Chocolate or the Patagonian Submarine Hot Chocolate, and a flat white for whoever carries the map. The full list is on the Basilica menu.

Walk out, turn towards the Danube, and you are soon on Zrínyi utca. Stop one stands in the middle of the street.

1. The Fat Policeman statue (Zrínyi utca)

Photo: Fauvirt, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped and resized, via Wikimedia Commons

He has stood on this pedestrian street since 2008. Hungarians call him the pocakos rendőr, the pot-bellied policeman. He wears a Hungarian police uniform of the 1909–1945 era, with a tall helmet of a style known as the “Zrínyi helmet”, and he happens to stand on Zrínyi utca (We Love Budapest, 2023). He is a friendly, round policeman, the kind who would give directions rather than a ticket.

Look at his belly. It shines brighter than the rest of him. That shine comes from hands: people coming home late at night often stop to hug him, and tourists photograph him in large numbers (We Love Budapest, 2023).

Look for: the polished belly, and the helmet. That style is called a “Zrínyi helmet”, and he stands on Zrínyi utca.

Stamp: rub the belly once, and make a wish. Then compare heights: how many children tall is he?

From here, walk north to Szabadság tér (Liberty Square), 377 m in a straight line.

2. Breki: Kolodko’s tiny Kermit statue on Szabadság tér

Photo: Globetrotter19, CC BY-SA 3.0, resized, via Wikimedia Commons

This is the hardest stamp of the day, because the statue is tiny. Mihály Kolodko makes bronze figures about the size of a clenched fist (Atlas Obscura) and sets them around the city without official permission (TheCollector, January 2026). This one is Kermit the Frog from The Muppet Show. In Hungary Kermit is called Breki. He sits low down, next to a fence. The same guide also points out a darker joke: frog legs became a Hungarian delicacy in the late 19th century.

Get down low. Most of Kolodko’s figures live at shoe height, so children usually spot them first. Because they are unofficial, a piece can sometimes go missing. If Breki is not there, the stamp still counts.

Look for: green bronze legs and a nose rubbed bright.

Stamp: say “Hi-ho!” to Breki, the way Kermit says hello.

OpenStreetMap shows a playground about 61 m from Breki, on the same square, if anyone needs a break before the next stop.

3. Szabadság tér: the monuments where the game pauses

The north end of the square holds political monuments, and here the game stops. The tall obelisk is the Soviet war memorial, put up in 1945. A few steps away stands a bronze of Ronald Reagan by István Máté, placed here in June 2011 (Wikipedia). These monuments stand for very different parts of the 20th century, and people in Hungary still discuss what they mean.

There is no stamp here. Read the plaques together, answer the questions your children ask in plain words, and walk on. The next leg is the long one: 718 m in a straight line from the obelisk south to Erzsébet tér.

4. The Danubius Fountain (Erzsébet tér)

Photo: Mike is Michi, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped and resized, via Wikimedia Commons

The statue game picks up again in the park. The man on top is Danubius, the river Danube shown as a bearded god. Below him sit three women. Each one is a river that flows into the Danube: the Tisza, the Drava and the Sava (A View On Cities). Miklós Ybl, the architect of the Opera House, designed the fountain, and it was built in 1883 on Kálvin tér. It was destroyed in the fighting of 1944–45. The fountain you see on Erzsébet tér is a copy (We Love Budapest, 2020).

Look for: the three river ladies. You have to walk all the way round the basin to see each one.

Stamp: give each river lady her name. The Tisza, the Drava and the Sava. Can anyone say all three without looking?

Now head south-west towards the river, 431 m in a straight line to Vigadó tér.

5. The Girl with Her Dog (Vigadó tér)

Photo: Ank Kumar, CC BY-SA 4.0, resized, via Wikimedia Commons

On the square in front of the Pesti Vigadó concert hall, a bronze girl in jeans sits on a round stone bench. A big shaggy dog leans in under her hand. The sculptor is Dávid Raffay. She is an easy stamp after the long leg, and the bench is the right height for a short sit.

Look for: where the dog’s fur shines. That is where people stroke him.

Stamp: sit next to her on the bench and look where she looks: down at her dog. Then turn round together and find the castle behind you across the Danube.

The Little Princess is only 52 m away, on the river railing.

6. The Little Princess statue (Kiskirálylány)

This is the last stamp and the best one. A small girl sits on the iron railing of the Danube promenade, above the tram tracks, with Buda Castle behind her. She wears a paper crown and a coat that is far too big for her.

The sculptor László Marton made her as a small statuette in 1972. The model was his eldest daughter, Évi. She liked to play princess in a newspaper crown, with a bathrobe as her royal cloak. The original statuette belongs to the Hungarian National Gallery. This larger version has sat on the promenade since 1990, and copies stand in Tapolca, Marton’s home town, and in Tokyo (Wikipedia).

Look for: the crown’s folded points, and her knees, polished bright where people have touched them.

Stamp: make a crown. A napkin or a folded page from your stamp sheet will do. Wear it for one photo next to her.

She sits right above the tram line, so keep small hands on your side of the railing.

Side quest: Piszkos Fred by the Academy

If the team still has energy, walk north along the river towards Széchenyi István tér instead of turning straight inland. In December 2025 Kolodko placed a new mini statue next to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences: Piszkos Fred (“Dirty Fred”), the scruffy sea captain from Jenő Rejtő’s funny adventure novels (We Love Budapest, 26 December 2025). The article gives only “by the Academy”; OpenStreetMap marks him on Id. Antall József rakpart, the riverside road below the Academy, so look low along there. It adds about 338 m in straight lines, and from there Zrínyi utca takes you home.

Bonus stamp: salute the captain, sailor-style.

The fork

• If small legs give up early: do the short loop. Hercegprímás utca, the Fat Policeman, Breki and the playground, then home. That is about 900 m in straight lines.
• If it is getting dark: the statues stay where they are, but Breki is hard to find at shoe height without light. Do the square first and the river last, when the castle lights come on behind the Little Princess.

Return to base

From the Little Princess, walk inland and back up Zrínyi utca, and say goodbye to the Fat Policeman on the way. Five stamps call for a prize, so pick one out at the Basilica spot on Hercegprímás utca: a chunky Classic Choco Chip or a Red Velvet & Oreo.

Practical box

Checked on 21 October 2026.

More walks from our doors

• The buildings around the same streets: the Bee Hunt, a Lipótváros walk from the Basilica.
• Courtyards on the other side of District V: Seven Doors Behind Ferenciek tere.
• New to the city: your first day in Budapest.

Hero photo: Ank Kumar, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped and resized, via Wikimedia Commons