Fővám Square

This guide to Fovam Square in Budapest opens on a rainy Sunday in 1896, when Emperor Franz Joseph pressed a button to drive the last rivet into a new Danube bridge, a silver rivet stamped with his own monogram. It follows the decades of souvenir hunters who kept prying that rivet loose, and the bridge's own ordeal through wartime demolition and rebuilding under a new name. You'll also hear how the market hall behind the square, roofed in colorful tile, gave this whole plaza its name from the old customs ground beneath it.