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Budapest capital, Hungary
Dictionary
Bu·da·pest (bu'd?-pest', -pesht')
The capital and largest city of Hungary, in the north-central part of the country on the Danube River. It was formed in 1873 by the union of Buda on the right bank of the river with Pest on the left bank. The city was the center of the Hungarian uprising against the Communist government in 1956. Population: 1,700,000.
Encyclopedia
Budapest (bu'd?pest') , city (1990 pop. 2,016,100), capital of Hungary, N central Hungary, on both banks of the Danube. The largest city of Hungary and its industrial, cultural, and transportation center, Budapest has varied manufactures, notably textiles, instruments, and electronics. Budapest has well-developed commercial, transport, and communication services as well. Educational and cultural institutions in the city include Loránd Eötvös Univ. (1635), Central European Univ., the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the National Széchenyi Library, the National Museum, the National Theater, and the State Opera House.
Budapest was formed in 1873 by the union of Buda (Ger. Ofen) and Óbuda (Ger. Alt-Ofen) on the right bank of the Danube River with Pest on the left bank. Buda, situated among a series of hills, was traditionally the center of government buildings, palaces, and villas belonging to the landed gentry. Pest, a flat area, has long been a commercial and industrial center.
History
The area around Budapest may have been settled as early as the Neolithic era. Aquincum, the Roman capital of Lower Pannonia, was near the modern Óbuda, and Pest developed around another Roman town. Both cities were destroyed by Mongols in 1241, but in the 13th cent. King Béla IV built a fortress (Buda) on a hill around there, and in the 14th cent. Emperor Sigismund built a palace for the Hungarian rulers. Buda became the capital of Hungary in 1361, reaching its height as a cultural center under Matthias Corvinus. Pest fell to the Turks in 1526, Buda in 1541.
When Charles V of Lorraine conquered them for the Hapsburgs in 1686, both Buda and Pest were in ruins. They were resettled, Buda with Germans, Pest with Serbs and Hungarians. Buda, a free royal town after 1703, had a renaissance under Maria Theresa, who built a royal palace and in 1777 transferred to Buda the university founded in 1635 by Peter Pazmany at Nagyzombat. The university was later moved (1784) to Pest. In the 19th cent. Pest flourished as an intellectual and commercial center; after the flood of 1838, it was rebuilt on modern lines. Buda became largely a residential sector.
After the union of Buda and Pest in 1873, the united city grew rapidly as one of the two capitals of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. The city was by 1917 Hungary's leading commercial center and was already ringed by industrial suburbs. Also a beautiful city, Budapest became famed for its literary, theatrical, and musical life and attracted tourists with its mineral springs, its historic buildings, and its parks. Especially notable is the large municipal park and the showplace of Margaret Island (Hung. Margit Sziget), in the Danube, where St. Margaret, daughter of Béla IV, had lived in a convent.
With the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy (Oct., 1918), Hungary, under Count Michael Karolyi, was proclaimed an independent republic. Budapest became its capital. When Karolyi resigned (Mar., 1919) the Communists, led by Béla Kun, gained temporary control of the city and established a Soviet republic in Hungary; but his troops were defeated in July, and Budapest was occupied and looted by Romanian forces. In Nov., 1919, Budapest was seized by forces of Admiral Horthy, who in Mar., 1920, was proclaimed regent of Hungary.
Horthy allied Hungary with Germany in World War II until Oct., 1944, and that same month German troops occupied Budapest. After a 14-week siege the city fell (Feb., 1945) to Soviet troops. Almost 70% of Buda was destroyed or heavily damaged, including the royal palace and the Romanesque Coronation Church. When Hungary was proclaimed a republic (Jan., 1946), Budapest became its capital. In 1948 the Hungarian Communists, backed by Soviet troops, seized control of Hungary and proclaimed it (Aug., 1949) a people's republic. Budapest was the center of a popular uprising against the Hungarian Communist regime in Oct.–Nov., 1956 (see Hungary).
Budapest ( booh-duh-pest, booh-duh-pesht)
Capital of Hungary and largest city in the country, located in north-central Hungary on both banks of the Danube River; the industrial, cultural, and transportation center of Hungary.
The telephone dialing code for: Budapest, Hungary
The country code is: 36
The city code is: 1
Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.
The noun Budapest has one meaning:
Meaning #1: capital and largest city of Hungary; located on the Danube River in north-central Hungary
Synonyms: Hungarian capital, capital of Hungary
Budapest
Budapest is the capital city of Hungary and the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial and transportation center.
Budapest has over 1.7 million inhabitants, down from a mid-1980s peak of 2.1 million. Budapest became a single city occupying both banks of the river Danube with the amalgamation in 17 november 1873 of right-bank Buda (Ofen in German) and Óbuda (Old Buda or Alt-Ofen) together with Pest on the left (east) bank. It is the seventh largest city in the European Union.
History
Budapest's recorded history begins with the Roman town of Aquincum, founded around 89 AD on the site of an earlier Celtic settlement near what was to become Óbuda, and from 106 until the end of the 4th century the capital of the province of lower Pannonia. Aquincum was the base camp of Legio II Adiutrix. The area of Campona (today's Nagytétény) belongs to Buda as well. Today's Pest became the site of Contra Aquincum (or Trans Aquincum), a smaller sentry point. The word Pest (or Peshta) is thought to originate from the Bolgar language, (a Turkic language, not related to modern Bulgarian, which is a Slavic language) because at the time of the reign of the Bulgarian Khan Krum, the town was under Bulgar Turk dominion. The area then became a homeland for the Avars and some Slavic peoples.
The area was occupied around the year 900 by the Magyars of Central Asia, the cultural and linguistic ancestors of today's ethnic Hungarians, who a century later officially founded the Kingdom of Hungary. Already a place of some significance, Pest recovered rapidly from its destruction by Mongol invaders in 1241, but it was Buda, the seat of a royal castle since 1247, which in 1361 became the capital of Hungary. The Croats who have been in personal union with the Hungarian Crown for centuries and also accepted Budapest as their capital, still call this city Budimpešta (Croatian or Serbian Budim for Buda and Pešta for Pest).
The Ottoman Empire's conquest of most of Hungary in the 16th century interrupted the cities' growth: Buda and Pest fell to the invaders in 1541. While Buda remained the seat of a Turkish pasha, and administrative center of a whole vilayet, Pest was largely derelict by the time of their recapture in 1686 by Austria's Habsburg rulers, who since 1526 had been Kings of Hungary despite their loss of most of the country.
It was Pest, a bustling commercial town, which enjoyed the faster growth rate in the 18th and 19th century and contributed the overwhelming majority of the cities' combined growth in the 19th. By 1800 its population was larger than that of Buda and Óbuda combined. The population of Pest grew twentyfold in the following century to 600,000, while that of Buda and Óbuda quintupled.
The fusion of the three cities under a single administration, first enacted by the Hungarian revolutionary government in 1849 but revoked on the subsequent restoration of Habsburg authority, was finally effected by the autonomous Hungarian royal government established under the Austro-Hungarian Ausgleich ("Compromise") of 1867; see Austria-Hungary. The total population of the unified capital grew nearly sevenfold in 1840–1900 to 730,000.
During the 20th century, most population growth occurred in the suburbs, with Újpest more than doubling between 1890–1910 and Kispest more than quintupling in 1900–1920, as much of the country's industry came to be concentrated in the city. The country's human losses during World War I and the subsequent loss of more than two thirds of the former kingdom's territory (1920) dealt only a temporary blow, leaving Budapest as the capital of a smaller but now sovereign state. By 1930 the city proper contained a million inhabitants, with a further 400,000 in the suburbs.
Between 20% and 40% of Greater Budapest's 250,000 Jewish inhabitants died through Nazi and Arrow Cross genocide during 1944 and early 1945. [1], [2] Despite this, Budapest today has the highest number of Jewish citizens per capita of any European city.
On January 1, 1950, the area of Budapest was significantly expanded: new districts were formed from the neighbouring cities and towns (see Great-Budapest). From the severe damage during the Soviet siege in 1944, the city recovered in the 1950s and 1960s, becoming to some extent a showcase for the more pragmatic policies pursued by the country's communist government (1947–1989) from the 1960s. Since the 1980s, the capital has shared with the country as a whole in increased emigration (mostly to the agglomeration) coupled with natural population decrease.
Demographic history
- 1800: 54,200 inhabitants
- 1830: 102,700
- 1850: 178,000
- 1880: 370,800
- 1900: 733,400
- 1925: 957,800
- 1990: 2,016,100
- 2003: 1,719,343
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Budapest from the Erzsébet viewpoint, closer is Buda
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Parliament side and the Buda Castle by night
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Promenade on the Pest side of the Danube
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Districts of Budapest
- Main article: List of districts and towns in Budapest
Budapest's districts are numbered clockwise, in widening circles, and are organized similarly to the arrondissements in Metropolitan Paris.
Originally Budapest had 10 districts after coming into existence upon the unification of the three cities in 1873. On 1 January 1950 Budapest was united with several neighboring towns and the number of its districts was raised to 22. At that time there were changes both in the order of districts and in their sizes. Now there are 23 districts, 6 in Buda, 16 in Pest and 1 on an island between them. Each district can be associated with one or more city parts named after former towns within Budapest.
Landmarks and monuments
St. Stephen's Basilica, Pest
- (The below sights are grouped by location.)
- Andrássy Avenue with its several sights including the State Opera House, the Pest Broadway and the House of Terror
- Buda Castle with the Royal Palace, the Funicular, Hungarian National Gallery and National Széchényi Library, Matthias Church and Fisherman's Bastion
- City Park with Széchenyi Medicinal Bath, Vajdahunyad Castle, the Timewheel, the Zoo, the Municipal Grand Circus and the Amusement Park
- Danube Promenade (Duna-korzó) with Vigadó Concert Hall
- Dohány Street Synagogue with the Holocaust Memorial (weeping willow statue)
- Ferenciek tere with Paris Courtyard and Erzsébet Bridge with Inner City Parish Church nearby
- Franz Liszt Academy of Music
- Gellért Baths, Gellért Hill with Gellért Statue, Cave Church and Citadel with Liberty Statue
- Grand Market Hall and Liberty Bridge
- Heroes' Square with the Millenary Monument, the Palace of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts
- Margaret Island with the Centennial Memorial, a Japanese garden, a Musical Fountain, several recreation facilities and Franciscan, Dominican and Premonstratensian ruins from the Middle Ages
- Museum of Applied Arts
- National Museum
- New York Café
- Óbuda
- Palace of Arts and National Theatre
- Parliament Building with King Stephen's crown and sceptre, Kossuth Memorial, Ethnographical Museum, Attila József statue, Imre Nagy statue
- Saint Stephen's Basilica
- Statue Park
- Széchenyi Chain Bridge, Academy of Sciences and Gresham Palace
- Tomb of Gül Baba
- Váci Street and Vörösmarty Square
- Western Railway Station
Transport
Airport
Budapest Ferihegy International Airport, which has 3 different passenger terminals: Ferihegy 1, Ferihegy 2/A and Ferihegy 2/B. The airport is located to the east of the centre in the XVIII. district in Pestszentlőrinc.
Roads
Budapest is the most important Hungarian road terminus; all the major highways end there. Between 1990-1994, the city street names were reverted back to their late 19th century names, which were changed under the Soviet occupation. Budapest is also a major railway terminus.
Budapest Keleti (Eastern) Railway Station
The old ticket hall at Keleti (Eastern) Railway Station
Railway
Main articles: MÁV, HÉV
Hungarian main-line railways are operated by MÁV. There are three main railway termini in Budapest, Keleti (eastern), Nyugati (western), and Déli (southern), operating both domestic and international rail services. Budapest was one of the main stops of the Orient Express until 2001, when the service was cut back to Paris-Vienna.
There is also a suburban rail service in and around Budapest, operated under the name HÉV.
Subway
Main articles: Budapest Metro, List of Budapest metro stations.
The Budapest Subway system is the second oldest subway in Europe (after the London Underground). The original subway line is now the M1 or Yellow line. It was fully restored to its original condition, for a historical ride. Two other lines, the M2 (red) and M3 (blue), were built later and serve other parts of the city. The M4 is currently under construction and the M5 is expected to be started in 2007. Both lines M2 and M4 will be fully automated and operate without drivers. The Budapest Subway was the scene of the 2004 film Kontroll.
Waterways
The river Danube flows through Budapest on its way to the Black Sea. The river is easily navigable and so Budapest has historically been a major commercial port (at Csepel).
Special vehicles
Beside metros, suburban rails, buses, trams and boats, there are a couple of less usual vehicles in Budapest:
The latter three vehicles run among Buda hills.
Important figures
- Franz Xaver von Zach 1754 born in Pest, astronomer
- Ignaz Semmelweis born 1818 in Buda, physician
- Árpád Doppler born in 1857 in Budapest, composer
- Theodor Herzl born in 1860 in Budapest, journalist and founder of modern political Zionism
- George de Hevesy born in 1885 in Budapest, Nobel Prize winner in chemistry (1943)
- Georg Lukács born in 1885 in Budapest, philosopher
- Fritz Reiner born in 1888 in Budapest, conductor
- Albert von Szent-Györgyi Nagyrapolt born in 1893 in Budapest, Nobel Prize winner biologist, first isolated and described the vitamin C
- Karl Mannheim in 1893 in Budapest, philosopher
- George Szell in 1897 in Budapest, conductor
- Leó Szilárd born in 1898 in Budapest, developed the nuclear bomb
- Béla Bartók lived from 1899 to 1940 in Budapest, composer
- László József Bíró born in 1899, developed the biro
- Edward Teller born in in 1908, "father of the hydrogen bomb" nuclear physicist
- László Papp born in 1926 in Budapest, boxer
- Ferenc Puskás born in 1927 in Budapest, soccer player
- Imre Kertész born in 1929 in Budapest, author, Nobel Prize 2002
- George Soros (Soros György) born in 1930 in Budapest
- Ernő Rubik born in 1944 in Budapest, developed Rubik's Cube
- Péter Esterházy born in 1950 in Budapest, author
- Zoltán Kocsis born in 1952 in Budapest, pianist
- Zoltán Kodály lived and died 1967 in Budapest, composer
- Sir Georg Solti born in 1912 in Budapest, conductor
- Tom Lantos born in 1928 in Budapest, US Congressman
- Andy Grove born in 1936 in Budapest, founder and former Chairman and CEO of Intel Corporation
Sister cities
Berlin, Germany, since 1992
Fort Worth, Texas, United States, since 1990
Frankfurt, Germany, since 1990
Lisbon, Portugal, since 1992
New York City, United States, since 1991
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See also
External links
General information
Information for tourists
Picture galleries
Miscellaneous
Copyrights:
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Dictionary definition of Budapest
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2004, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. More from Dictionary |
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Encyclopedia information about Budapest
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/ More from Encyclopedia |
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Weather forecast for Budapest
© 2006 AccuWeather, Inc. More from Weather |
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Local Time information about Budapest
Copyright © 2001 - Chaos Software. All rights reserved More from Local Time |
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Geography information about Budapest
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved. More from Geography |
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Int'l Dialing Codes information about Budapest
© 1999-2006 by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. More from Int'l Dialing Codes |
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WordNet information about Budapest
WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. More from WordNet |
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Wikipedia information about Budapest
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Budapest". More from Wikipedia |
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Translations for Budapest
Copyright © 2006, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. More from Translations |
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ganesha global
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