Black Widow Budapest locations

BLACK WIDOW LOCATIONS IN BUDAPEST

I hope I would not ruin someone’s expectations with spoilers six years after the release, but the character of Natasha Romanova left the Marvel saga in Avengers: Endgame, and her story looked finished. Or not? The ‘Budapest’ past of Romanova and Hawkey (Jeremy Renner) was mentioned several times in the universe, starting from the first Avengers in 2012. It is difficult to say whether such references were enough to make a completely separate movie devoted to the character of Black Widow. Still, Scarlett Johansson’s image indeed has gained its fans. Since she said goodbye to the franchise and could not proceed with the new phases of the MCU, at least in the way we used to, the creators of ‘Black Widow’ faced a challenge to write, shoot, and promote a two-hour story, which would be a huge flashback, a look in the past into the events, that could not influence the main timeline. On the other hand, people love prequels dealing with their beloved characters, even if we know the ending page, the process is a journey in itself. 

The story of Black Widow takes place between the timelines of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. Keeping in mind the specifics of creating a story that can not influence the main MCU timeline, a separate movie about Natasha contrasts so much with all four Avengers movies, not only in scale but also in atmosphere and storytelling. Black Widow feels closer to The Winter Soldier with its detective-spy direction than to any other Marvel movie. The past and skills of the character make her look like a female James Bond character who travels the world chasing the bad guy. The movie takes its audience to Norway, Morocco, Budapest, and the terrorist state of russia. Like many other spy movies, like the 007 franchise and the adventures of Jason Bourne, the movie was actually filmed in different studios and open-air locations across the globe: Morocco, Norway, the Bahamas, the USA, the United Kingdom, and finally, Hungary. 

As I previously mentioned in other articles devoted to the Budapest filming locations, the city has been generally used to depict other European cities like Prague, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and even Florence (Inferno). In Black Widow Budapest locations, the city actually plays itself by getting an important part in the story. On the one hand, we finally find out what the secret mission assigned to Natasha and Clint Barton in Budapest many years ago was. On the other hand, Romanova goes to Hungary and meets her maiden sister Yelena Belova, and they both have to run from the other widows and the mysterious Taskmaster across the streets of Budapest. Only about twenty minutes of the two hours take place in the city, but the chase across its streets is probably the most recognizable sequence of the whole movie, leaving behind both the prison break and the final battle on the skyship. Both the filming crew and actors enthusiastically received the idea of working in actual Budapest. Scarlett Johannson said in an interview that she was thrilled to see how the filmmakers incorporated the old city into the story and how film director Cate Shortland tried to capture both the past and the present while working on the streets of the Hungarian capital. 

THE OPENING PANORAMA OVER BUDAPEST

Every major ‘filming city’ has its carte-de-visite, which the filmmakers often use to introduce the location, often in the opening scene, and the letters to make sure that even a hard-boiled non-traveler recognizes the place where the story takes place. Berlin almost always brings its 368-meter TV tower, London is hard to imagine without the Parliament building, or the Tower Bridge. In Paris, the filmmakers never miss a chance to show the Eiffel Tower and the Arc of Triomphe. Rome feels incomplete without the Coliseum, Roman Forum, or the Vatican. Prague always comes to the Hollywood movies along with its Charles Bridge. Black Widow, in this sense, was also not unique in introducing Budapest since evidently, the two most recognized landmarks are the Parliament building and the Danube, with the old bridges over the river. The movie introduces the city from a high perspective, showing us both the scale and the grace of the upcoming location, not forgetting to put large BUDAPEST letters on the screen. 

This opening panorama lasts only six seconds, but the choice of location was not a coincidence, since it shows another famous Budapest landmark, better known to the citizens than to tourists, who often prefer other less challenging sites to come close to. This 235-meter high point over Budapest is the Gellert Hill, named after a semi-legendary Gerard of Csanad or Saint Gerard. Despite several versions with the details of how this monk was killed in the XI century, there is a consensus that he lost his life on this hill, being either rolled down in a cart down the hill still alive, or his body was thrown from one of the cliffs. The citadel, which tops the hill nowadays, was built in 1851 by the Habsburg monarchy as a strategic fortress after the Hungarian Revolution. It was a potentially convenient spot to shell both banks of the Danube. IT served as a strategic point in the Second World War, and in 1956, the murderous Soviet troops shelled the city from here. 

The Liberty Statue, which inevitably falls into a shot in the movie, was unveiled in 1947. Created by Hungarian sculptor Szigmond Kisfaludi Strobl (1884-1975), it was initially dedicated to the Soviet soldiers who participated in the Battle of Budapest in 1945. It is interesting to note that the woman figure was inspired by a real Hungarian girl whom the sculptor Strobl accidentally met in the street. She posed for several weeks but earned no money for her time and patience, only coal for heating her apartment. The initial composition also included the infamous figure of the red army soldier with a machine gun in his hand, which was placed beneath the main sculpture of a woman with a palm leaf. When the Hungarians understood the true nature of the communist regime, they changed their attitude to any symbols of soviet oppression. Unfortunately,  man’s statue remained here until 1989, when it was finally demolished. The Woman statue was preserved, cleaned of any communist symbolism, and now it is regarded as a commemorative memorial to all Hungarians who lost their lives in the battle for independence. At the foot of Gellert Hill stands the famous Hotel Gellert, which appeared in Red Sparrow, another spy movie inspired by the Cold War era. 

NATASHA COMES TO THE CITY: BUDAPEST KELETI TRAIN STATION

After only six seconds on Gellert Hill, Budapest introduces another location with a brief appearance. The scene of Natasha Romanova’s arrival at the Budapest railway station in Black Widow looks similar to a similar introduction shot from The Bourne Identity, where Matt Damon arrived in Zurich, the scene which was actually shot in Prague. In the case of Black Widow, the short sequence was indeed shot in Budapest at the Keleti train station. An excellent choice as a movie location. The station, whose name is translated from Hungarian as the ‘Eastern train station’, welcomed its first passengers on August 16, 1884, when a train departed for the city of Miskolc in northeastern Hungary, 140 km from Budapest. The station was lit by electricity from 644 lamps from day one and, at the time of the opening, was regarded as the main train station, a status it lost in 1892. In the last stages of WWII, the Allied bombardments and later Soviet shelling badly damaged the old building in the eclectic style, and it was renovated in later decades. Nowadays, the station has seven platforms and thirteen tracks. 

ON THE STREET OF BUDAPEST

A brief sequence at the train station makes space for another two-second one, showing Natasha on her way to the safe house apartment in Budapest. We see the crossroads and one of the recognizable yellow trams. This panoramic shot was taken at the crossroads of Népszínház Street and Aurora Street in Budapest’s 8th district. This location is actually only 1km from the Keleti Station; thus, Romanova had no problem getting here on foot. 

METTING YELENA

Followed by several seconds of exterior shots, Natasha gets into a typical cylindrical Budapest courtyard and lifts in the historical-like elevator. These initial shots and several other angles were later filmed inside Adria Palace. Located in the heart of the city on Liberty Square, this historical building is approximately 2.5 kilometers from the crossroad in the opposite direction when moving from Keleti train station. This magnificent piece of Hungarian architecture was built between 1900 and 1902 for the Adria Marine Company, which operated on the Adriatic Sea. Apart from the headquarters, the building also included commercial spaces and rented apartments. In the next century, the Palace was owned by the National Bank, offered a residential area that was welcomed by cafes, and was nationalized after World War Two. The latest renovation started in 2020, and thus, the Black Widow filming crew, who came here in mid-2019, captured the state of the building, which perfectly suited the plot. Due to the difficulties of production and precautions while working in the historical palace, most of the action sequences, including explosions, were shot at the Pinewood Studios near London. 

In several minutes, we see two different locations: the real Adria Palace in Budapest and its cinematic interior version created in a studio set in the UK. But there is more to come, since the exterior shots when Yelena and Natasha get on the roof of the building were shot not at the top of Adria Palace, but less than one hundred meters away, on top of the famous Budapest Stock Exchange building. The most attentive movie fans probably know the front side of the building as the entrance to the abandoned casino in Blade Runner 2049 (2017). The giant historical building was opened in 1907 and named after Sir Thomas Gresham (1519-1579), the founder of the Royal Stock Exchange in England in the 16th century, since the project was financed by Gresham Life Assurance Company as their Budapest headquarters. After the Second World War, the building was purchased by the Hungarian government and accommodated a library. In the 1970s, a magnificent palace was reshaped into communal apartments, typical of communist countries. After the fall of the regime, a private investor bought the building and restored its historical look. The latest restoration process was initiated in 2017, and in 2025, the building is still closed. 

LOSING THE TAIL: THE BUDAPEST CHASE

After a more scaled-down fighting sequence inside the building and on its roof, mixed with two different locations on Liberty Square and the Pinewood sets, the two main characters finally go to the fresh air. Natasha and Yelena leave the building, take the bikes, and for the first time face the furious determination of the Taskmaster to kill them. The scene was actually filmed about one and a half kilometers from Liberty Square and both the Adria Palace and the Stock Exchange Building. This narrow street is called Magyar Utca, and the park beside which the characters of Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh run toward the bikes is known as Karolyi Garden. Regarded as the oldest public park in the inner part of the city, this open French-style garden was opened in 1932 and named after the Karolyi Palace, owned by the family with this name since the late XVIII century. 

The bikes were parked on the northeast corner of the park on the intersection of Magyar Utca and Henszlmann streets. When Natasha and Yelena mount their transport to run away from the armored vehicle, they go through an arch in the building. This sequence was also filmed in this area, and a narrow passage leads from a narrow Magyar Utca to a broader Muzeum boulevard. The area is at the arm’s end of the Hungarian National Museum, one of the Inferno filming locations. I can safely assume that at least part of this action sequence, with the Taskmaster’s vehicle ruining everything on a narrow street, was digitally edited. 

Like in many other movies, the Black Widow chasing scene involves mixed locations scattered across the city. When Natasha and Yelena go through the arch, they appear not on Muzeum Boulevard but on Vigyázó Ferenc Utca, more than a kilometer from the arch and the previous location. We clearly see the Danube River, and a few seconds later, chased by another black widow, the girls lose their bike and get into a BMW X3. A magnificent building they pass by is the Hungarian Academy of Science, which has been dominating the area since 1865. Built in Renaissance revival style, the building reminds one of  Prague, Paris, or Amsterdam. The chase continues along the river on Id. Antall József rkp. quay, when Natasha makes a harsh right turn onto Garibaldi Street just next to the famous Parliamentary building, which this time evades appearing in the shot. 

Most of the following sequence with the Taskmaster was filmed on or around Alkotmany Street to the East of the Parliament building. As the Taskmaster draws his bowstring, behind him we see one of the most beautiful buildings in the area on the corner of Alkotmany Utca and Nagy Ignac streets. The Neo-Gothic Unitarian Church was opened as far back as October 26, 1890. According to a later interview with both Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh, the car chase scene was a bit of a challenge, and both actresses were impressed by the architecture of Budapest. The whole chase sequence demanded the use and destruction of thirteen different BMW X3 cars of the same color, all to make the action sequence convincing. The filming crew often disabled electronic stability control and safety features and replaced the X3’s electronic parking brake with a hydraulic one. Second-unit director Darrin Prescott explained that the crew often replaced the engine or ripped the entire body off the car and rebuilt it from scratch. The story and scene locations were adjusted to create spontaneous and authentic stunts. 

The whole sequence ends at the subway, where the BMW slips down after an impressive explosion of one of the Taskmaster’s arrows. There is no metro station on Alkotmany Street, where the movie supposes it should be. On the other hand, the scene was filmed just a few hundred meters to the northeast at the Nyugati Subway station, just next to the train station of the same name. The station was opened in 1981, and nowadays it is one of the busiest in the city center, which made it challenging for the filming crew to create an authentic scene with extras, without interrupting the public use of the metro for a long time. After losing their tail for a while, Natasha and Yelena take their time at a gas station outside Budapest, the actual location called Feco Bufe on the city’s outskirts.