BUDAPEST

Central Budapest, looking north along the Danube River, with the Parliament Building on the east city, capital of Hungary, and administrative centre of Budai jrs (district) and Pest megye (county). The city is the political, administrative, industrial, and commercial centre of Hungary. The site has been continuously settled since prehistoric times and is now the home of about one-fifth of the country's population. Once called the Queen of the Danube, Budapest has long been the focal point of the nation and a lively cultural centre. The city straddles the Danube (Hungarian: Duna) River in the magnificent natural setting where the hills of western Hungary meet the plains stretching to the east and south. It consists of two parts, Buda and Pest, which are situated on opposite sides of the river and connected by a series of bridges. Although the city's roots date to Roman times and even earlier, modern Budapest is essentially an outgrowth of the 19th-century empire of Austria-Hungary, when Hungary was three times larger than the present country. Hungary's reduction in size following World War I did not prevent Budapest from becoming, after Berlin, the second largest city in central Europe. One out of five Hungarians now lives in the capital, which, as the seat of government and the centre of Hungarian transport and industry, dominates all aspects of national life. Tens of thousands of commuters converge on Budapest daily, more than half the nation's university students attend school in the city, and about half the country's income from foreign tourism is earned there. Budapest stood apart from the relatively drab capitals of the other Soviet-bloc countries; it maintained an impression of plenty, with smart shops, good restaurants, and other amenities. The dissolution of the Soviet bloc and Hungary's transition away from socialism brought Budapest new opportunities for prosperity and an influx of Western touristsalong with the stresses of economic transition to a more Western-style economy. Central Budapest, looking north along the Danube River, with the Parliament Building on the east city, capital of Hungary, and the administrative centre of Budai jrs (district) and Pest megye (county). The city, situated astride the Danube River, is the political, administrative, industrial, and commercial centre of Hungary. The site has been continuously settled since at least the 3rd millennium BC and now is the home of about one-fifth of the country's population. The city acquired the name Budapest in 1873 when the communities of Pest (on the left bank of the Danube), Buda (on the right bank), and buda (Old Buda, to the north of Buda) amalgamated. The area of the city has been extended to include the outer industrial suburbs. Whereas Pest is located on a flat and featureless plain, Buda is built on the slopes of the Buda Hills, sweeping picturesquely down to the Danube's western bank. Much of the city's area comprises agricultural land and open country, largely wooded. Hot mineral springs, some containing radium, have long been tapped for medicinal purposes. Budapest's climate is transitional between a harsh continental type and a temperate, western European type, with a mean annual precipitation of about 24 inches (600 mm). Agriculture is little practiced in the immediate environs of Budapest, and the role of industry in the city's economy has declined with the decentralization of manufacturing. Heavy industry and the manufacture of textiles and instruments, telecommunications, and electronics are still important, however, and the city's service and administrative sectors have grown. Budapest plays a vital role in the transport and communications services of Hungary, and the Danubian countries maintain shipping agencies there. Many foreign trade companies are located in the city as well. Commerce is promoted by international fairs and exhibitions. A steady shift of population from the inner city to the suburban periphery has accompanied inner-city redevelopment and the relocation of industry out of the city centre. While postwar reconstruction has given the city a more modern appearance, many traditional structures remain, such as the restored Buda Castle and Matthias Church (dating from the 13th century) in Buda's Castle Hill district, the Town Hall (1735) in Pest's Inner Town, and the Parliament Building (1904) along the river to the north of the latter district. People's Democracy Avenue, the city's finest thoroughfare, extends northeastward from Pest's Inner Town to City Park. Notable structures along its route include the State Opera House (1884) and the Museum of Fine Arts. In addition to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest has numerous institutions of higher learning, including Lornd Etvs University (founded 1635). There are also many museums, art galleries, theatres, and concert halls. Budapest has an extensive subway and tramway system. Buda is connected with Pest by bridges and a railway tunnel. International transport links include the Danube, with its Csepel Free Port for use by members of the Danube Commission, and transcontinental highways and railways. The Ferihegy International Airport is located 10 miles (16 km) southeast of the city centre. Area city, 203 square miles (525 square km). Pop. (1993 est.) 2,008,546. Additional reading General information may be found in C.A. Macartney, Hungary: A Short History (1962); and T.I. Berend and G. Rnki, Hungary: A Century of Economic Development (1974), both of which contain information on the capital; and Gyula Nmeth (ed.), Hungary: A Complete Guide, trans. from the Hungarian, 3rd rev. ed. (1988), which discusses the history and environs of the city. Among the guides in English are Istvn Wellner, Budapest: A Complete Guide (1980; originally published in Hungarian, 1979), an informative work; and Lszl Cseke, The Danube Bend (1977; originally published in Hungarian, 1976), which explores the area north of Budapest. Historical sources include Martyn C. Rady, Medieval Buda: A Study of Municipal Government and Jurisdiction in the Kingdom of Hungary (1985), the best work on the subject; Emeric W. Trencsnyi (comp.), British Travellers in Old Budapest (1937), a collection of descriptions of the city beginning with Edward Brown in the 17th century; and Gyrgy Klsz, Budapest Anno: Picture Photographs in the Studio and Outside, 2nd ed. (1984; originally published in Hungarian, 1979), an album containing fascinating snapshots of 19th-century life in the capital. See also Lszl Gero, Buda Castle (1979; originally published in Hungarian, 1971); and Ferenc Flep (ed.), The Hungarian National Museum (1978; originally published in Hungarian, 1977). Of the many photographic collections, Zsolt Szabky and Gyrgy Szraz, Budapest, 2nd ed., trans. from Hungarian (1982), is the best. Lszl Pter The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica History Early settlement and the emergence of medieval Buda Budapest's location is a prime site for habitation because of its geography, and there is ample evidence of human settlement on the Danube's western side from Neolithic times onward. Two miles north of Castle Hill, in what became buda, a settlement named Ak-Ink (Ample Water) was established by the Celtic Eravisci. This became Aquincum when the Romans established a military camp and civilian town there at the end of the 1st century AD. Becoming the seat of the province Pannonia Inferior (c. AD 106) and then acquiring the status of a municipium (124) and finally a full colony (194), Aquincum grew into a thriving urban centre with two amphitheatres. After the collapse of Roman authority in Pannonia in the early 5th century, some of the large buildings were inhabited by Huns and later by Visigoths and Avars, each group controlling the region for a while. Kurszn, the Magyar tribal chieftain, probably took up residence in the palace of the former Roman governor at the end of the 9th century. The settlement shifted south to Castle Hill some time after Stephen I of Hungary had established a Christian kingdom in the early 11th century. Buda, for whom the settlement was named, was probably the first constable of the new fortress built on Castle Hill, and the old site to the north became known as buda (Old Buda). On the opposite side of the river, a Slavonic settlement, Pest (meaning Lime Kiln, which is also suggested by Ofen, the German name for Buda), was already in existence. Medieval Buda prospered and declined along with its patron, the Hungarian royal court. The municipality was established by royal charter in 1244, by Bla IV. He bestowed on the citizens of Pest, whose town had been devastated by the Mongols in 1241, the right to settle in full possession of their privileges in the fortified castle. The town administration, based on German law, had been dominated by German burghers before it became reorganized in 1439. At that time, parity status was conferred on the Hungarians in municipal government. Buda's preeminence, developed under royal protection, was underlined by its judicial authority (as a higher court) over other free royal towns, although the proximity of the king's court undermined its own self-government. The palace was rebuilt by Matthias I, whose death in 1490 marked the decline of both royal power and the town. The Turks held Buda between 1541 and 1686. After a devastating siege it was liberated by a Christian army organized by the Holy Roman emperor Leopold I. Little of Matthias' Buda survived into the 18th century. Buda, buda, and Pest Both Buda and Pest were recognized by Leopold I as royal free towns in 1703, while buda, a village, belonged to Pest megye, the autonomous county that was in the hands of the local Hungarian nobility. In 1720 Buda and buda had a combined population of about 9,600, while that of Pest was only 2,600; but by 1799 Buda had some 24,300 inhabitants to Pest's 29,870, demonstrating that the balance in the size of the two townships had shifted. Pest, a German commercial centre in Hungary and by then part of the Habsburg empire of Austria, had begun to grow in the late 18th century. Buda, where in the early 18th century only German Roman Catholics were allowed to settle, remained an imperial garrison town and developed once more under the eye of the monarch. A new royal palace was built in the 1760s during the reign of Maria Theresa. The university was moved from Nagyszombat (modern Trnava, Slovakia) to Buda in 1777; since 1949 it has been called Lornd Etvs University. In 1783 Joseph II turned Buda into the country's administrative centre; that same year the Curia (High Court) was moved to Buda, and the university was transferred to Pest. For centuries floods were a serious problem, and one in 1838 took a particularly heavy toll: more than half the houses in Pest were destroyed, and Buda suffered as well. The character of Buda under the Habsburgs remained aristocratic and distinctly alien. Pest, into which the gentry and intelligentsia moved, became wedded to the national cause; the Szchenyi Chain Bridge, linking Buda with Pest, was a metaphor for unity. The town of Pest was still partly German, but the nobility of Pest megye led the campaign for Hungarian home rule. After the outbreak of revolution in Pest in March 1848, a Hungarian ministry, transferred from Pozsony (modern Bratislava, Slovakia) and responsible to the Diet, was established there. In the ensuing civil war Buda was besieged in May 1849 by the revolutionary army of the patriot Lajos Kossuth. Repression followed the revolution until 1867, when the country, which became Austria-Hungary the following year, was placed under the Dual Monarchy. Governments were established in Vienna and Pest.