You're standing on a riverside road in Pest, Budapest, renamed in 2010 for a Catholic nun killed nearby.
Last reviewed 26 October 2026 · A three-minute read · 1443–now
The short answer
Salkaházi Sára rakpart, a lower Danube embankment in Pest, Budapest, is named for Sára Salkaházi, a Catholic nun who sheltered around 100 Jews during World War II and was shot into the river nearby by Arrow Cross gunmen on 27 December 1944, aged 45. Budapest's General Assembly renamed the embankment for her unanimously in 2010, and a memorial plaque near the spot has marked the site since 2001.
Budapest, Inner City, 1056 Hungary — 2010 · Verőczi Zoltán · CC BY 3.0
1944 to 2010
A nun sheltering Jews was shot into the Danube here
On the embankment above the Danube in Pest, Budapest, the road under your feet carries the name of Sára Salkaházi, a nun killed a short distance from here. Salkaházi belonged to the Sisters of Social Service, a Catholic order, and spent the last years of World War II hiding persecuted people, by one account nearly a hundred Jews, at a working girls' home on Bokréta utca. The Arrow Cross, Hungary's fascist militia, found her out. On December 27, 1944, they marched her to the riverbank and shot her into the water. The Danube took her body the way it took thousands of others that winter, with no grave to mark the spot.
Sára Salkaházi was beatified by the Catholic Church in 2006, and in 2010 Budapest's city council voted unanimously to rename this riverside road for her. Before that it was simply the lower Danube embankment running from Liberty Bridge (Budapest) south to Közraktár utca. Liberty Bridge itself stands about 550 feet from here, still carrying trams across the river.
Sára Salkaházi was captured by Arrow Cross party members along with other prisoners. Sára Salkaházi was 45 years old.
Liberty Bridge has drawn repeated suicide attempts since 1896, with people climbing the four Turul sculptures on its pillars before jumping into the Danube or onto the roadway.
January 1945
Retreating German troops blew up the nearby bridge
The war that took Sára Salkaházi came back for the bridge itself a few weeks later. On January 16, 1945, retreating German troops blew up every Danube bridge in Budapest during the siege. Liberty Bridge, built with a cantilevered steel frame and counterweights, didn't shatter outright. It buckled and collapsed inward instead. Soviet engineers threw up a pontoon bridge to replace it, but ice tore that one apart on January 10, 1946, less than a year later.
March 1945
A temporary wooden bridge sagged and had to be rebuilt
Even before the main repairs began, the Buda side gave trouble. In March 1945, Soviet crews tried to prop up a temporary wooden span at the Buda bridgehead. The damaged foundation couldn't hold the weight. The structure sagged and kept sagging, and engineers had to start again almost from scratch.
1945 to 2001
A plaque and repeated jumps marked the rebuilt bridge
Liberty Bridge was fully restored and reopened by August 1946, rebuilt under Hungary's postwar government. In 2001, a memorial plaque went up near the spot where the Arrow Cross shot her into the Danube, naming what had happened on this stretch of riverbank.
A man in his 50s climbed one of the Turul bird sculptures atop Liberty Bridge's pillars in May 2010. He set himself on fire with spray and jumped, landing on the bridge roadway rather than the river. He died instantly at the scene.
A 19-year-old Dutch man fell from Liberty Bridge at dawn in the summer of 2021. He landed on the roadway below and died in the fall.
2024 to now
Wartime bombs and bodies kept surfacing near the embankment
The ground near you has kept turning up reminders of the war that killed her. Work on Budapest's Metro Line 4, finished in 2014, ran crews and tunnels through this part of the Inner City, and the project cost two workers their lives on other sites along the line. At Kálvin tér, construction crews broke into a crypt under the Calvinist church there and found the remains of more than seventy wealthy 19th-century residents, sealed under the square for over a hundred years.
The river itself hasn't finished giving up the war. In October 2026, bomb disposal crews pulled unexploded World War II ordnance from the Danube near this exact stretch of embankment. Police closed the quay for 300 feet in both directions while they worked.
Every spring, the Sisters of Social Service, the order Salkaházi belonged to, return to the plaque near here. In May 2026, on the 80th anniversary of her death, they laid wreaths and held Mass on the embankment, marking the spot where she died for sheltering people the regime had marked for death.
The road still runs along the Danube between Liberty Bridge and Közraktár utca, named for the nun shot into the river nearby.
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19th-century burials, found during 2000s construction
Building Metro Line 4, workers uncovered a crypt beneath the Calvinist church at Kálvin tér holding the remains of more than 70 wealthy 19th-century residents.
Since Liberty Bridge opened in 1896, its climbable structure and decorative Turul statues have made it a recurring site for suicide attempts into the Danube or onto the roadway.
On 27 December 1944, Arrow Cross gunmen executed Sára Salkaházi, a Catholic nun who had sheltered around 100 Jews, on the Danube bank now named after her.
During the 1944 Arrow Cross terror, victims were shot into the Danube from these lower embankments, which is why they were later renamed for rescuers and martyrs.
On 16 January 1945, retreating German forces destroyed all of Budapest's Danube bridges, including Liberty Bridge just downstream, during the Siege of Budapest.
In March 1945, the damaged Buda bridgehead could not bear the weight of a temporary wooden structure during emergency Soviet reconstruction of the destroyed bridge.
Construction of Metro Line 4, including the Fővám tér station beneath this square, killed two workers: one crushed by concrete and another in a crane accident.
Budapest's General Assembly voted unanimously to rename this lower Danube embankment Salkaházi Sára rakpart, honoring those who saved people from the 1944 Arrow Cross terror.
On 27 December 1944, Arrow Cross gunmen marched Sára Salkaházi, a Catholic nun who had hidden nearly a hundred Jews at a working girls' home on Bokréta utca, to this riverbank and shot her into the Danube.
Who was Sára Salkaházi?
Sára Salkaházi was a member of the Sisters of Social Service who spent the final years of World War II sheltering persecuted people, including nearly a hundred Jews, before being captured and killed by the Arrow Cross at age 45.
What was here before Salkaházi Sára rakpart was named?
Before its 2010 renaming, this road was simply the lower Danube embankment running from Liberty Bridge south to Közraktár utca.
Why was the embankment renamed in 2010?
Budapest's city council voted unanimously in 2010 to rename the embankment after Sára Salkaházi, who was beatified in 2006, marking the spot near where she was killed for sheltering people the Arrow Cross regime had marked for death.
What happened to Liberty Bridge near this embankment?
Retreating German troops blew up Liberty Bridge, about 550 feet from the embankment, on 16 January 1945; the bridge buckled and collapsed inward, and repeated postwar repair attempts, including a pontoon bridge destroyed by ice in 1946 and a wooden span that sagged in March 1945, preceded its full restoration by August 1946.
What was found near the embankment in October 2026?
Bomb disposal crews recovered unexploded World War II ordnance from the Danube near this stretch of embankment in October 2026, prompting police to close the quay for 300 feet in both directions.
