A History of Budapest

From Ancient Times to the Dawn of the 18th Century

The Carpathian Basin has been populated by successive peoples for hundreds of thousands of years. A blend of Celts, Romans, Huns, Mongols, Turks, Slovaks, Austrians, Germans and Russians, have all combined to create Hungary's national identity. Magyars, as Hungarians call themselves, are part of the Finno-Ugric group of peoples, which originated from western Siberia. It is believed that one group of Magyars established themselves on Csepel Island and Óbuda when Pest and Buda were no more than small, seperate villages. Known for their horse riding skills, the Magyars raided far and wide, until they were stopped by the Germans in 955. This and subsequent defeats left them in disarray, and later forced them into an alliance with the Holy Roman Empire. In the year 1000, the Magyar prince Stephen was crowned Christian King Stephen I, later canonized Saint Stephen, with a crown sent from Rome by the pope, and Hungary, the kingdom and the nation, was officially born.

The next two hundred fifty years were marked by constant battles between rival claimants to the throne, and land grabs by powerful neighbors. A castle was built at Buda and Pest was proclaimed a royal municipality. After the death in 1301 of Andrew III, Hungary flourished with a succession of able rulers, beginning with Charles Robert, his modestly named son Louis the Great, and then Sigismund of Luxembourg, who enlarged the Royal Palace, founded a university at Óbuda and erected the first pontoon bridge over the Danube. This period culminated in the reign of Matthias Corvinus, who made the country one of Europe's leading powers and brought Buda into the nation's focus for the first time. In 1526, however, his successor was crushed inside two hours by the invading Ottoman Turks. Buda was sacked and burned before the Turks returned and took it for good in 1541. It marked the end of a relatively prosperous and independent Hungary, sending the nation into a period of partition, foreign domination and despair. The Hungarians finally forced the Turks out in 1699.

Domination by Austria and the Birth of Budapest

The country became a province of the Austrian Hapsburg Empire and Hungary blossomed economically and culturally. Buda effectively became the German-speaking town of Ofen and by 1783 was the nation's administrative center. Pest later became an important commercial center while Buda remained a royal garrison town. In 1849, under the rebel leadership of Lajos Kossuth, Hungary declared full independence. The Habsburgs crushed the revolution and instigated a series of brutal reprisals.

However, passive resistance among Hungarians and a couple of disastrous military defeats for the Habsburgs eventually led to the Compromise of 1867, creating the Dual Monarchy of Austria the empire and Hungary the kingdom. Buda, Pest and Óbuda united to form Budapest in 1873. This “Age of Dualism” began an unprecedented economic, cultural and intellectual rebirth.

Independent Hungary

After the Austrian-Hungarian Empire was broken up after World War I, Hungary achieved independence, with Budapest as its capital. Hungary was an ally of the Axis Powers in World War II and suffered grievously for that decision. In a rigged election in 1947, the Communists took over and made Hungary a client state of the Soviet Union. A bloody revolt in 1956, centered in Budapest, was ruthlessly crushed by Soviet troops. However, with the rest of Eastern Europe, Hungary was liberated from Soviet domination. Today, quite ironically, Hungary is one of the newest members of NATO.

Castle Hill

Castle Hill contains nearly all of the city’s important monuments and museums, as well as affording a wonderful view of Pest across the Danube. There are two parts to the place; Old Town, where people lived in the Middle Ages, and the Royal Palace.

The Old Town is filled with attractively painted houses, decorative churches and the famous Fishermen's Bastion, built as a viewing platform in 1905. It was named after the guild of fishermen responsible for defending this stretch of wall in the Middle Ages. It has commanding views over the city, and is dominated by seven gleaming turrets, representing the seven Magyar tribes who entered the Carpathian Basin in the 9th century and a statue of St Stephen on horseback.

Royal Palace

Burned, bombed, razed, rebuilt and redesigned at least six times over the past seven centuries, the Royal Palace is now an 18th- & early 20th-century reconstruction.

A good place to visit is the Turkish Ceremony, accessed by walking through the Ferdinand Gate and past the Mace Tower. The palace gardens are also a great place to relax. The Palace contains a number of museums, including Hungarian National Gallery, with a huge Hungarian art section, the Széchenyi National Library and the Budapest History Museum.

City Park

The entrance to City Park is Heroes' Square, which has the nation's most solemn monument. It is an empty coffin, representing one of the unknown freedom fighters from the 1956 Uprising, beneath a stone tile. Also visit the Millenary Monument, a 120ft pillar backed by colonnades. To the north of the square is the Museum of Fine Arts, which houses the city's outstanding foreign works, while to the south is the ornate Palace of Art.

Gellért Hill

The climb up this hill is worth it as it affords a panoramic view of the Royal Palace, the Danube and its bridges. The Citadella, a fortress of sorts, and the Independence Monument top the hill. The Gellért Hotel is a kind of Art Nouveau palace and the city's favorite old-world hotel. There is an impressive spa open to the public. Visiting it is like taking a soak in a cathedral. A few minutes northeast of Elizabeth Bridge are the Rudas baths, with an octagonal pool, domed cupola, colored glass and massive columns, but it is restricted to males only.

Király Baths

Speaking of bath houses, of which Budapest is filled with due to its location on a network of cool mineral and warm thermal springs, check out the Király Baths. They are in between Margaret Island and the Castle District, along the Danube on the Buda bank. It has four pools, the main one with a fantastic sky lit dome dating back to 1570.

Magyar Állami Operaház

Even if one is not an opera fan, a visit to this Hungarian State Opera House is worth it for the opulence of the 1884 neo-Renaissance architecture. It has arguably one of Europe's most beautiful interiors. It's especially worth taking a guided tour just so you don't find yourself distracted by the architecture during a performance.

Visiting Budapest

As with most places in Europe, spring and fall are best times to visit in order to avoid crowds of tourists. The summer and winter months are not too extreme, though some of the museums and other attractions are closed in the winter. Budapest is easily accessible by air, train, or bus, though if one has deep pockets a hydrofoil trip down the Danube from Vienna is a possibility. Budapest has an ageing but safe, inexpensive and efficient public transport system that won't have you waiting more than five to 10 minutes. It is by far the supreme way of getting around Budapest, with links between the metro, HÉV (green trains), yellow trams, red trolleybuses and blue buses abounding.