Budapest

Budapest, the capital of Mayarország,¹ straddles the Duna River² in the north center of the country.³ The former city of Buda lies on the right (west) bank among hills that are part of the Transdanubian Mountains, and the former city of Pest lies on the other bank within the nation's Great Plain. The combined city has a metropolitan population of about 2.5 to 3.0 million⁴ with more than 1.7 million within the city limits.⁵ The city gained prominence when it became a capital in 1361 and remained important after it was conquered by the Turks. Upon reconquest by Christians in the 1690s, the city's population dropped, to rise again when it again became a capital in 1783.

The tallest building as of the early fall of 2018 is the Hulladékhasznosító Mű (power plant fueled by waste, 404 feet). More famous buildings include the Országház (315 feet, 1903, the parliament building); the Mátyás-templon (262 feet, 1896); the Danubius Hotel Gellért (1918); the Budai Vár (palace, 1769); and the Halászbástya (castle). Also famous is the Szabadság bridge (1896, rebuilt after World War II).⁶ UNESCO honors various parts of the city 'including the banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter and the Andrássy Avenue' as a World Heritage Site, drawing attention to the castle, the parliament building, the Lánchíd Bridge (1849) and the underground railway of the 1890s.⁷ Tourists visit the city seeing the thermal water cave, the synagogue, the parliament building, the Fishermen's Bastion, and the Holocaust Memorial called, in English, the 'Shoes of the Danube.'⁸

The city is served by the nearby Ferenc Liszt International Airport, the nation's busiest.⁹

Historical maps

External references

Országház on the Duna, Budapest, Mayarország

Footnotes

1. Hungary in English.
2. Danube in English. It flows to the Black Sea, which is connected to and considered an arm of the Atlantic Ocean.
3. The city is its own county-level unit, within the statistical Central Region.
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_areas_in_Europe, accessed September 8, 2018, has 2.523 million for the 2006 ESPON ESPON functional area, 3.001 million for the 2017 Eurostat Metropolitan Region, and 2.8 million for the Eurostat Metropolitan Region. World-gazetteer.com, accessed February 6, 2013, has 2.555 million for a 2012 calculation.
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_cities_by_population_within_city_limits, accessed September 8, 2018, has 1.759 million labeled as official for January 1, 2015, and 1.729 million listed as Eurostat for 2011.
6. Emporis.com, accessed September 27, 2018. The Lakihegy Blaw-Knox Radio Tower (1030 feet), the chimney of the Óbuda Power Station (666 feet), the Széchenyhegy TV Mast (630 feet), the chimney of the Újpest Power Station (482 feet), and the large chimney of the Kelenföld Cogeneration Station (482 feet) are taller than 404 feet.
7. UNESCO, World Heritage Sites (Firefly Books, 2010).
8. https://www.touropia.com/best-places-to-visit-in-hungary/, accessed September 10, 2018.
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_busiest_airports_in_Europe, accessed September 10, 2018, 2017 table.
10. Tertius Chandler, Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth, 2nd ed. (The Edwin Mellen Press, 1987), "Tables of the World's Largest Cities." Buda plus Pest to 1873 was the largest urban center in what is now Magyarország in 1400, 1500, 1600 and 1800, and Budapest was the largest city in 1900.