Váci Street

This guide to Vaci Street in Budapest centers on a spring evening in 1823 at the Seven Electors' Inn, once the grandest address on the street, when a twelve-year-old Ferenc Liszt sat down at the piano for his debut performance in Pest. It follows the inn's later fate, torn down around 1840 and replaced by a building that cycled through hotel, cinema, and eventually theater. You'll hear what a listener that night wrote about the boy's playing. Look up at number nine as you walk the promenade.