Budapest (/ˈbuːdəpɛʃt/, /ˈbuːdəpɛst/ or /ˈbʊdəpɛst/; Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈbudɒpɛʃt] ( listen); names in other languages) is the capital and the largest city of Hungary,[1] the largest in East-Central Europe and one of the largest cities in the European Union. It is the country’s principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre,[2] sometimes described as the primate city of Hungary. In 2011, according to the census, Budapest had 1.74 million inhabitants,[4] down from its 1989 peak of 2.1 million due to suburbanization.[6] The Budapest Commuter Area is home to 3.3 million people. The city covers an area of 525 square kilometres (202.7 sq mi)[9] within the city limits. Budapest became a single city occupying both banks of the river Danube with a unification on 17 November 1873 of west-bank Buda and Óbuda with east-bank Pest.
The history of Budapest began with Aquincum, originally a Celtic settlement that became the Roman capital of Lower Pannonia.[11] Hungarians arrived in the territory[13] in the 9th century. Their first settlement was pillaged by the Mongols in 1241–42.[14] The re-established town became one of the centres of Renaissance humanist culture[15] in the 15th century.[16] Following the Battle of Mohács and nearly 150 years of Ottoman rule,[17] the region entered a new age of prosperity in the 18th and 19th centuries, and Budapest became a global city after the 1873 unification.[18] It also became the second capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a great power that dissolved in 1918, following World War I. Budapest was the focal point of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, the Hungarian Republic of Councils of 1919, Operation Panzerfaust in 1944, the Battle of Budapest in 1945, and the Revolution of 1956.
Cited as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, its extensive World Heritage Site includes the banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter, Andrássy Avenue, Heroes’ Square and the Millennium Underground Railway, the second oldest in the world.[19][21] Other highlights include a total of 80 geothermal springs,[22] the world’s largest thermal water cave system,[23] second largest synagogue, and third largest Parliament building. The city attracts about 4.3 million tourists a year, making it the 25th most popular city in the world (and the 6th in Europe) according to Euromonitor.
Considered a financial hub in Central Europe, the city ranked 3rd (out of 65 cities) on Mastercard’s Emerging Markets Index,[26] and ranked as the most livable Central/Eastern European city on EIU’s quality of life index.[27][28] It is also ranked as «Europe’s 7th most idyllic place to live» by Forbes,[29] and as the 9th most beautiful city in the world by UCityGuides.[30] It is the highest ranked Central/Eastern European city on Innovation Cities’ Top 100 index.[31][32]
Budapest is home to the headquarters of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT),[33] and the first foreign office of the China Investment Promotion Agency (CIPA).
The name «Budapest» is the composition of the city names «Buda» and «Pest», since they were united (together with Óbuda) to become a single city in 1873.[35] One of the first occurrences of the combined name «Buda-Pest» was in 1831 in the book «Világ» («World» / «Light»), written by Count István Széchenyi.[36]
The origins of the words «Buda» and «Pest» are obscure. According to chronicles from the Middle Ages the name «Buda» comes from the name of its founder, Bleda (Buda), the brother of the Hunnic ruler Attila. The theory that «Buda» was named after a person is also supported by modern scholars.[37] An alternative explanation suggests that «Buda» derives from the Slavic word «вода, voda» («water»), a translation of the Latin name «Aquincum», which was the main Roman settlement in the region.[38]
There are also several theories about the origin of the name «Pest». One of the theories[39] claims that the word «Pest» comes from the Roman times, since there was a fortress «Contra-Aquincum» in this region which was referred to as «Pession» («Πέσσιον», iii.7.§2) by Ptolemaios.[40] According to another theory, «Pest» originates from the Slavic word for cave «пещера, peshchera» or from the word for oven «печь, pech'», in reference to a cave where fires burned or to a local limekiln.[41] In the old-Hungarian language there was a similar word meaning oven/cave and the original old-German name of this region was also «Ofen». Later, the German «Ofen» referred to the Buda side.
The first settlement on the territory of Budapest was built by Celts[11] before 1 AD. It was later occupied by the Romans. The Roman settlement — Aquincum — became the main city of Lower Pannonia[11] in 106 AD.[11] At first it was a military settlement and gradually the city raised around it becoming the focal point of the commercial life.Today this area correspond to the Óbuda district within Budapest.[42] The Romans constructed roads, amphitheaters, baths and houses with heated floors in this fortified military camp.[43] Acquincum is the main and best-conserved of the Roman sights in Hungary. The archeological site was turned into a museum with inside and open-air section.
The peace treaty of 829 added Pannonia to Bulgaria due to the victory of Bulgarian army of Omurtag over the Holy Roman Empire of Louis the Pious. Budapest arose out of two Bulgarian military frontiers, fortresses Buda and Pest, situated on the two banks of Danube.[44] Hungarians led by Árpád settled in the territory at the end of the 9th century,[13][45] and a century later officially founded the Kingdom of Hungary.[13] Research places the probable residence of the Árpáds as an early place of central power near what became Budapest.[46] The Tatar invasion in the 13th century quickly proved that defence is difficult on a plain.[9][13] King Béla IV of Hungary therefore ordered the construction of reinforced stone walls around the towns[13] and set his own royal palace[14] on the top of the protecting hills of Buda. In 1361[14] it became the capital of Hungary.[9]
The cultural role of Buda was particularly significant during the reign of King Matthias Corvinus.[9] The Italian Renaissance had a great influence on the city.[9] His library, the Bibliotheca Corviniana,[9] was Europe’s greatest collection of historical chronicles and philosophic and scientific works in the 15th century, and second only in size to the Vatican Library.[9] After the foundation of the first Hungarian university in Pécs in 1367,[47] the second one was established in Óbuda in 1395.[47] The first Hungarian book was printed in Buda in 1473.[48] Buda had about 5,000 inhabitants around 1500.
The Ottomans pillaged Buda in 1526, besieged it in 1529, and finally occupied it in 1541. The Turkish occupation lasted for more than 140 years.[9] The Turks constructed many fine bathing facilities within the city.[13] Some of the baths that the Turks erected during their occupation period are still in function after 500 years (Rudas and Király). Under Ottoman rule many Christians became Muslim. By 1547 the number of Christians was down to about a thousand, and by 1647 it had fallen to only about seventy.[49] The unoccupied western part of the country became part of the Habsburg Empire as Royal Hungary.
In 1686, two years after the unsuccessful siege of Buda, a renewed campaign was started to enter the Hungarian capital. This time, the Holy League’s army was twice as large, containing over 74,000 men, including German, Croat, Dutch, Hungarian, English, Spanish, Czech, Italian, French, Burgundian, Danish and Swedish soldiers, along with other Europeans as volunteers, artilleryman, and officers, the Christian forces reconquered Buda, and in the next few years, all of the former Hungarian lands, except areas near Timişoara (Temesvár), were taken from the Turks. In the 1699 Treaty of Karlowitz these territorial changes were officially recognized, and in 1718 the entire Kingdom of Hungary was removed from Ottoman rule. The city was destroyed during the battle. Hungary was then incorporated into the Habsburg Empire.
During the Hungarian Republic of Councils in 1919, the Heroes’ Square was completely covered with red fabric and a statue of Marx was erected
1867 was the year of Reconciliation that brought about the birth of Austria-Hungary. The 19th century was dominated by the Hungarian struggle for independence[9] and modernization. The national insurrection against the Habsburgs began in the Hungarian capital in 1848 and was defeated a little more than a year later.This made Budapest the twin capital of a dual monarchy. It was this compromise which opened the second great phase of development in the history of Budapest, lasting until World War I. In 1849 the Chain Bridge linking Buda with Pest was opened as the first permanent bridge across the Danube[50] and in 1873 Buda and Pest were officially merged with the third part, Óbuda (Ancient Buda), thus creating the new metropolis of Budapest. The dynamic Pest grew into the country’s administrative, political, economic, trade and cultural hub. Ethnic Hungarians overtook Germans in the second half of the 19th century due to mass migration from the overpopulated rural Transdanubia and Great Hungarian Plain. Between 1851 and 1910 the proportion of Hungarians increased from 35.6% to 85.9%, Hungarian became the dominant language, and German was crowded out. The proportion of Jews peaked in 1900 with 23.6%.[51][52][53] Due to the prosperity and the large Jewish community of the city at the start of the 20th century, Budapest was often called the «Jewish Mecca»[54] or «Judapest».[55][56]
In 1918 Austria-Hungary lost the war and collapsed; Hungary declared itself an independent republic. In 1920 the Treaty of Trianon finalized the country’s partition, as a result, Hungary lost over two-thirds of its territory, and about two-thirds of its inhabitants under the treaty, including 3.3 million out of 10 million ethnic Hungarians.[57][58]
In 1944, towards the end of World War II, Budapest was partly destroyed by British and American air raids. From 24 December 1944 to 13 February 1945, the city was besieged during the Battle of Budapest. Budapest suffered major damage caused by the attacking Soviet and Romanian troops and the defending German and Hungarian troops. All bridges were destroyed by the Germans. Luckily, the stone lions of the Chain Bridge that have taken their place in 1852 survived the devastation of the war. More than 38,000 civilians lost their lives during the conflict.
Between 20% and 40% of Greater Budapest’s 250,000 Jewish inhabitants died through Nazi and Arrow Cross Party genocide during 1944 and early 1945.[59] The Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg managed to save the lives of tens of thousands of Jews in Budapest by giving them Swedish passports and taking them under his consular protection.
In 1949, Hungary was declared a communist People’s Republic. The new Communist government considered the buildings like the Buda Castle symbols of the former regime, and during the 1950s the palace was gutted and all the interiors were destroyed.
In 1956, peaceful demonstrations in Budapest led to the outbreak of the Hungarian Revolution. This uprising was an anti-Soviet revolt that lasted from 23 October until 11 November. The leadership collapsed after mass demonstrations began on 23 October, but Soviet tanks entered Budapest to crush the revolt. Fighting continued until early November, leaving more than 3000 dead. This was the biggest tragedy for Hungary and to commemorate this sorrowful event, a monument was erected at the 50-years anniversary of the revolt in 2006, at the edge of the City Park. Its shape is a wedge with a 56 angle degree made in rusted iron that gradually becomes shiny, ending in an intersection to symbolize Hungarian forces that temporarily eradicated the Communist dictatorship.
From the 1960s to the late 1980s Hungary was often satirically referred to as «the happiest barrack» within the Eastern bloc, and much of the wartime damage to the city was finally repaired. Work on Erzsébet Bridge, the last to be rebuilt, was finished in 1964. In the early 1970s, Budapest Metro’s East-West M2 line was first opened, followed by the M3 line in 1982. In 1987, Buda Castle and the banks of the Danube were included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. Andrassy Avenue (including the Millennium Underground Railway, Hősök tere, and Városliget) was added to the UNESCO list in 2002. In the 1980s the city’s population reached 2.1 million. In recent times a significant decrease in population occurred mainly due to a massive movement to the neighbouring agglomeration in Pest county.
In the last decades of the 20th century the political changes of 1989–90 concealed changes in civil society and along the streets of Budapest. The monuments of the dictatorship were taken down from public places, into Memento Park. In the first 20 years of the new democracy, the development of the city was managed by mayor Gábor Demszky.
