History

Budapest - one of the "youngest" capitals of Europe - has a history of more than a 1000 years, however, the three city parts were only united in the second part of the previous century.

The ancient times

The Roman conquerors appeared in this area from the middle of the second century AD. Residences of the army were built along the crossing areas to defend the empire, beside these residences civilian cities emerged. One of the most important was Aquincum - at the territory of today's Ancient Buda. The citizens built their houses of stones and we can also find their baths here. The amphitheatre served as their place for entertainment and the Roman army provided defence and safety. Please visit our gallery »

The Hungarian Conquest

The conquering Hungarians occupied the Carpathian Basin at the second half of the 9th century. The people lead by Árpád chose Aquincum - the natural geographical centre of the country - as a dwelling place.

The foundation of state

The importance of the crossing place on the river Danube was rising continuously starting from the 10th century. After the appearance of Christianity Ancient Buda became the residence of kings. They had developed everything by this time ranging from stone houses through Roman road network till the market. The king's castle was built in Buda from the 13th century, furthermore, by the 12th century it has become a prospering, rich German merchant city surrounded by walls. It received its Letter of Privilege in 1230 from king Andrew II.

The reign of the Árpád-house

The history of the three cities has definitely grown together. At the beginning of the series of Mongol attacks the foreign army attacked the city of Pest, then during the winter of 1241-1242 crossing the frozen Danube they burnt Ancient Buda. The people either escaped or died in the siege. After all the Mongols left the country, our king Béla IV. ordered - as he was informed a new Mongol attack was being prepared - in 1244 that a stone fortress be built on top of the Buda mountain.
The kings of the Árpád-house summoned and kept the sessions of the "parliament" more and more often on the Rákos meadow next to Pest. The last king Andrew III died, the crown was forwarded to Charles Robert from the Anjou-house. His son Luis (I) the Great made Buda his permanent residence. Please visit our gallery »

14^th - 16^th century

In the 14^th century not only churches but a number of aristocratic and civilian houses were built. The streets received the names of professions indicating that craftsmen, artisans, and merchants lived here in considerable number. The lawbook of Buda was written in German language. On the other side of the Danube, Pest took a longer time to recover from the Mongol invasion. It regained its free right of election of judges and council only in the first half of the 15^th century since it used to receive judges and councillors from Buda. The inhabitants dealt with the commerce of animals and wine.

The two cities prospered in the middle ages during the reign of King Matthias. Under Zsigmond and then under Matthias the construction of the royal palace was completed and the court - especially the humanist royal court of Matthias - attracted the intellectuals to Buda, just as well as the seculars and the ecclesiasticals. The college of the back friar order was of university rank and the first Hungarian press, the press of András Hess operated here for 10 years. The city had 10-12 thousand inhabitants in the 15^th century. The Hungarian citizens strengthened more and more parallel with the German patricians. Please visit our gallery »

The Turkish domination

The Turkish sultan, Sulejman I attacked Hungary in August 1526. The Hungarians lost the final battle, that of Mohács, and escaped from Buda. Hungary was torn into three parts: the Eastern part was controlled by the Hapsburgs while the middle of the country was under Turkish domination. The Western part (Transylvania) kept its relative freedom.

After all of these events, the residence of the former Hungarian kings became the scene of party struggles: Ferdinand of the Hapsburgs and the richest Hungarian lord, János Szapolyai were fighting for the crown and for the possession of the Buda castle. Before the Turkish army occupied the castle by trick, the towns and the castle itself had suffered the attacks of the armies of both the Hapsburgs and Szapolyai. On 29th August 1541 the Turks occupied the Buda castle from which date the city served as the western key and strategically highly important point of the Turkish Empire. The muslim Turks took the churches of the Christian population and turned them into mosques. After a number of trials to free the Hungarians, the city was liberated from the 145-year Turkish rule in 1686.

Reconstruction

The reconstruction of Buda began with the settling of foreign people. The Hungarians were forbidden to enter the territory of Buda, the city and the neighbouring Ancient Buda was settled by families gathered from the German principalities.
The city of Pest consisted of 126 houses 10 years after the liberation. The cleaning of the ruins preceded the construction here as well, that was carried out by the leadership of the city in an individual way: they did not charge duty from merchants entering the city with a horse-drawn carriage packed with goods if they took a carriageful of ruins out of the city on their way back. During the reconstruction the citizens reclaimed that both Pest and Buda receive their Letter of Privilege that they couldn't regain until 1711. Please visit our gallery »

Free royal towns

The inhabitants with the right of citizenship living in a free royal town mostly possessed a city house and they had some kind of a crafts profession or they were merchants. Their leaders - the mayor, the judge, the superintendant - were elected. The city council dealt with the minor affairs of the inhabitants with or without the right of citizenship. They paid the tax in a lump sum and they sent ministers to the parliaments.
During the 18^th century the population of the two cities was altogether around 20-24 thousand, however, in a 100 years the population of Pest was above 100 thousand, moreover, the inhabitants of Buda only gave 50 thousand altogether. Buda and Pest became the centres of the country, while Buda became the administrative centre of the country by the 18th century following the measures taken by Maria Theresa and Joseph II.

In this century the classicist style of Pest was formed while there were mostly Baroque buildings in Buda. Very uniquely, the main arranging powers were the natural catastrophies, therefore, the flood of 1838 after the destruction of which the rebuilt Pest gained its metropolis-like appearance.
The real city-like characteristics were still missing for a long time from both cities: the paving of the streets, lights, cleanliness, security were still to be improved. The dynamically developing Pest undoubtedly became the centre of the country by the middle of the 19th century. The population was rapidly increasing, the centres of commerce and money were built, palaces and hotels emerged and cultural life accelerated. However, an overall program was necessary to include all fields of modernisation. This program was developed by count István Széchenyi. His first deed was the initiation of the construction of the Chain Bridge, however, the first permanent Danube bridge was built only after the defeated war of independence, it was inaugurated in November 1849. The first initiator of the togetherness and interdependence of the two cities was also István Széchenyi.
Please visit our gallery »

The revolution and the war of independence

Pest became the centre of Hungary during the revolution in 1848. The laws that were legistlated in 1848 stated that the Parliament be summoned every year in Pest and that Buda-Pest be the residence of the Hungarian government. The freedom movement was centralized in Pest as well: the leader of the war of independence, the National Defence Committee was formed here, furthermore, Louis Kossuth started the recruitment of the national defence army.
The armies of the emperor defeated the revolution after two months and the leadership of the army started the transformation of Buda- Pest into a fortress. This is the time when the Citadel was built upon Gellért-hill and when the buttresses of the Buda castle were strengthened.

The unification of the city

The politics of Vienna could not decrease the influence of Pest permanently. The city further-developed and grew bigger and bigger. After the Reconciliation in 1867 the great urbanisation developments were started in Pest. Starting from this time the city was the place of constant constructions. The streets of Pest were continuously widened, lengthened and arranged. In 1871 the construction of the Andrássy avenue was started, however, in the same year a law was brought about the construction of the Great boulevard. This is when the second bridge was built across the Danube, it was the Margareth Bridge. After the Reconciliation the organisation and development of public transportation began. In 1879 the construction of the telephone network started. Media, as an institution, appeared in the city. The main scenes of citizen life kept being formed and opened, such as cafés and dance-halls.

Millennium

The crown of the era was 1896, the year of the millennium. On this occasion a national exhibition was organised. The buildings of the Budapest exhibition were homed by the City Park. Agriculture, industry, culture, parts and cities of Hungary were introduced in these newly built buildings. Also on this occasion the first underground line in Europe, the "Kisföldalatti" was constructed. Not long after the most determining buildings of Budapest were finished: the Parliament, the Víg Theatre or the Museum of Applied Arts.

The two world wars

The answer for the sufferings of the first world war was the Rose Revolution in 1918 by the population of the capital, following which a four-month long proletarian dictatorship left its mark on the lives and approach of the citizens. The country shrank by the new borders that were decided and forced onto Hungary in the Trianon Treaty, still, the political importance and role of the capital increased, however, the concept of a "sinful city" poisoned the relationship between the capital and the government. In spite of all the administrative restrictions the capital could develop its economics, the leaders were trying to stand up to the expectations that existed for a metropolis.
Possessing the considerably decreased autonomy the leadership of the city was considered unable to act during the events of 1940, it suffered the nazi domination and the deportation of a part of the population helplessly. Finally it beared the devastation of a brainless war as a result of which Budapest became one of the most suffered, most bombed, most destroyed city of Europe.

The centralization

The ruined capital became the scene of the national politics right after the war in 1945. The Party of the Hungarian Workers that rose to power in 1948 introduced a Russian-type soviet system in 1950 which meant the final brake-up with the traditions of democratic development. The centralized leadership did not make it possible to exercise any local rights.
The political reliability was more significant in the - new - representative board instead of competence. The capital totally lost its economical independence. The government disposed of its income and the capital could only claim the financial support for its operation from the central - meaning state - resources within the planned economical system of the country. Besides planning the potential income and costs, the loss and the deficit (!) had to be planned, while the solution for the agglomeration problems of Great-Budapest brought its grave consequences in the budget.

The revolution of 1956

During the autumn of 1956 Budapest became the city of revolution. The protest against the political supression of the 1950s and the foreign - Russian - domination triggered off an armed fight first in the Hungarian capital. The revolution started on 23th October with the demonstration of students and the same night it ended up in a gunfight at the building of the National Radio. Very soon with the help of the army the revolution, that was successful for a few days, tried to realize the idea of the "humane socialism" under the leadership of the new prime minister, Imre Nagy. However, the revolution was defeated by the soviet army and not more than ten years after the end of the second world war the downtown of Budapest was bombed again. The revenge and the executions were to be carried out by the new leader, János Kádár.

The most cheerful barrack

The new leadership of the country needed to give more importance to the living conditions of people in favour of easing the tenision. The program of the construction of blocks of flats began, the everyday problems of living decreased. We became the display-city of socialism. The long regime of János Kádár brought about relatively high well-being and security while we became the most extrovert city of the eastern block. The centre of control was still Budapest, all the institutions of the country and the party were located in the capital. The reconstruction of the city also started that was quite badly organised and incomplete. The constructions of blocks of flats drew the attention of the authorities from the war wounds of the downtown area. There were only a few examples of restoring a bulilding or two, however bad quality material was used for the construction and for the sake of cheap solutions, a number of - still existing - original monuments were ruined.

The change of the regime

The dictatorship became quite smooth by the end of the 1980's and the underground opposition could work receiving only occasional revenge. By the end of the 1980's the alertness of the government eased down and the Soviet Union also gave out. Tremendous demonstrations were organised in the streets of Budapest in 1988 -1989.
During the autumn of 1990 after the parlamentary elections, the self-governmentary elections were held. Young and well known politicians were mostly elected from the opposition to lead the city. The young governance was to begin the abolishment of the soviet barracks and the old statues named after the heroes of the working-class movement, the restoration of the untended buildings, the delapidated infrastructure and the re-enactment of the destroyed and lost monuments.
The soviet army finally left the country in 1991. Please visit our gallery »

Present days

The reconstruction and metropolitan development of Budapest has been on the way according to a definite idea for ten years now. The industrial locations of the outskirts of the city have been demolished, various shopping centres emerged upon their old places. On the blocks remaining unbuilt between the buildings in the downtown there are now offices and banks. The wave of development did not avoid the theatres, baths, museums, libraries, parks, roads, flyovers, means of transport, let alone the healthcare and social institutions.

Budapest is now turning into a fizzy metropolis once more again. The historical cafés keep opening or being beautified, galleries and alternative drama spots are being formed, furthermore, various cultural festivals are being organised from time to time. Please visit our gallery »

The city has become a true centre of the country and it could also be the centre of the region in the near future considering that Hungary has joined the European Union.