The Orb of the World — Országalma in Hungarian — is the gilded sphere on a column that stands at the centre of Városház tér. It is a 1938 monument to Saint Stephen, modelled on the orb that is one of the three Hungarian coronation regalia (alongside the crown and the sceptre), and stamped with a cross to symbolise the Christian kingdom.
It is a small thing — one of those landmarks people walk past without registering — but the orb is genuinely beautiful in the late-afternoon sun, and the column is the natural anchor for photographs of the square. The original coronation regalia themselves now live in the Parliament building in Budapest.