Editing Budapest (section)

== History ==
{{Main|History of Budapest}}
{{For timeline}}

=== Early history ===

[[File:Nuremberg chronicles - BVJA.png|thumb|upright=2.05|[[Buda]] during the [[Middle Ages]], woodcut from the [[Nuremberg Chronicle]] (1493)]]

The first settlement on the territory of Budapest was built by [[Celts]]<ref name=Aqua /> before 1&nbsp;AD. It was later occupied by the [[Ancient Rome|Romans]]. The Roman settlement – [[Aquincum]] – became the main city of [[Pannonia (Roman province)|Pannonia Inferior]] in 106&nbsp;AD.<ref name=Aqua /> At first it was a military settlement, and gradually the city rose around it, making it the focal point of the city's commercial life. Today this area corresponds to the Óbuda district within Budapest.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://lovelybudapest.com/en/about-budapest/budapest-attractions.html |title=Association of professional tour guides |publisher=Lovely Budapest |access-date=21 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130514030640/http://lovelybudapest.com/en/about-budapest/budapest-attractions.html |archive-date=14 May 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The Romans constructed roads, [[amphitheater]]s, [[Public bathing|baths]] and houses with heated floors in this fortified military camp.<ref name=Frank>{{cite book |last=Sugar |first=Peter F. |title=A History of Hungary |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SKwmGQCT0MAC&q=The+Romans+roads,+amphitheaters+Aquincum+%C3%93buda&pg=PR9 |access-date=3 June 2008 |year=1990 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-20867-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofhungary00pete/page/5 5] |chapter=Hungary before the Hungarian Conquest |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofhungary00pete/page/5}}</ref> The Roman city of Aquincum is the best-conserved of the Roman sites in [[Hungary]]. The archaeological site was turned into a museum with indoor and open-air sections.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aquincum.hu/en/ |title=Aquincum – Aquincum Múzeum |publisher=Aquincum.hu}}</ref> Meanwhile, settlement in the area east of the Danube, which was not part of the Roman Empire, remained Germanic and Sarmatian in character.<ref>Nagy, Margit (2023). ''Das jüngerkaiserzeitliche Gräberfeld von Budapest-Rákoscsaba, Péceli út (2.–4. Jahrhundert). Ein grenznaher Fundort im Barbaricum gegenüber Aquincum'' [The Late Imperial cemetery of Budapest-Rákoscsaba, Péceli út (2nd-4th century). A site close to the border in Barbaricum opposite Aquincum] ([https://doi.org/10.62150/MABiPD.1.1.2023 volume 1], [https://doi.org/10.62150/MABiPD.1.2.2023 volume 2]). Budapest, {{ISBN|978-615-5254-12-3}}, especially vol. 1, pp. 15–24.</ref>

[[Hungarian people|The Magyar]] tribes led by [[Árpád]], forced out of their original homeland north of [[First Bulgarian Empire|Bulgaria]] by [[Simeon I of Bulgaria|Tsar Simeon]] after the [[Battle of Southern Buh]], settled in the territory at the end of the 9th century displacing the founding Bulgarian settlers of the towns of Buda and Pest,<ref name=Travel /><ref>Molnar, A Concise History of Hungary, Chronology pp. 12</ref> and a century later officially founded the [[Kingdom of Hungary]].<ref name=Travel /> Research places the probable residence of the [[Árpáds]] as an early place of central power near what became Budapest.<ref>Molnar, A Concise History of Hungary, p. 14</ref> The [[First Mongol invasion of Hungary|Mongol invasion]] in the 13th century quickly proved it is difficult to defend a plain.<ref name=Encarta /><ref name=Travel /> King [[Béla IV of Hungary]], therefore, ordered the construction of reinforced stone walls around the towns<ref name=Travel /> and set his own royal palace on the top of the protecting hills of Buda. German settlers were invited to rebuild and inhabit both Buda and Pest.<ref>{{cite book |last=Seewann|first=Gerhard |date=2012 |title=Geschichte der Deutschen in Ungarn |language=German |trans-title=History of the Germans in Hungary |url=https://digital.herder-institut.de/publications/frontdoor/deliver/index/docId/104/file/PUB_Herder-Institut_Studien_24-1_9783879693733.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230820205653/https://digital.herder-institut.de/publications/frontdoor/deliver/index/docId/104/file/PUB_Herder-Institut_Studien_24-1_9783879693733.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=2023-08-20|access-date=26 March 2025|publisher=Herder-Institut|place= Marburg|isbn=978-3-87969-373-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Vadas|first1=András|last2=Nagy|first2=Balázs|last3=Laszlovszky|first3=József |last4=Szabó|first4=Péter|title=The Economy of Medieval Hungary|page=500|publisher=Brill|year=2018|isbn=978-900436-390-8|url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Economy_of_Medieval_Hungary/1IRXDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA500&printsec=frontcover|access-date=26 March 2025}}</ref> In 1361 it became the capital of Hungary.<ref name=Eleventh /><ref name=Encarta />

The cultural role of Buda was particularly significant during the reign of [[Matthias Corvinus of Hungary|King Matthias Corvinus]]. The [[Italian Renaissance]] had a great influence on the city. His library, the [[Bibliotheca Corviniana]], was Europe's greatest collection of historical chronicles and philosophic and scientific works in the 15th century, and second in size only to the [[Vatican Library]].<ref name=Encarta /> After the foundation of the first Hungarian university in [[Pécs]] in 1367 ([[University of Pécs]]), the second one was established in Óbuda in 1395 ([[University of Óbuda]]).<ref name=Sugar>{{cite book |last=Sugar |first=Peter F. |title=A History of Hungary |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SKwmGQCT0MAC&q=Hungarian+university+1395+Buda&pg=PR9 |access-date=3 June 2008 |year=1990 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-20867-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofhungary00pete/page/48 48] |chapter=The Angevine State |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofhungary00pete/page/48}}</ref> The first Hungarian book was printed in Buda in 1473.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Mona |first=Ilona |year=1974 |title=Hungarian Music Publication 1774–1867 |journal=Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae |publisher=Akadémiai Kiadó |volume=16 |issue=1/4 |pages=261–275 |doi=10.2307/901850 |jstor=901850|issn=0039-3266}}</ref> Buda had about 5,000 inhabitants around the year 1500.<ref name="Peter F. Sugar page 88">Southeastern Europe under Ottoman rule, 1354–1804, Peter F. Sugar, page 88</ref>

[[File:Reprise Buda 1686.jpg|thumb|right|''Retaking of Buda from the Ottoman Empire'', painted by [[Frans Geffels]] in 1686]]

The [[Ottoman Empire|Ottomans]] conquered Buda in 1526, as well as in 1529, and finally [[Siege of Buda (1541)|occupied]] it in 1541.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/400 |title=Budapest, including the Banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter and Andrássy Avenue |author=UNESCO World Heritage Centre |publisher=UNESCO |access-date=12 March 2016}}</ref> The [[Ottoman Hungary|Ottoman Rule]] lasted for more than 150 years.<ref name=Encarta /> The Ottoman [[Turkish people|Turks]] constructed many prominent bathing facilities within the city.<ref name=Travel /> Some of the baths that the Turks erected during their rule are still in use 500 years later, including [[Rudas Baths]] and [[Király Baths]]. By 1547 the number of Christians was down to about a thousand, and by 1647 it had fallen to only about seventy.<ref name="Peter F. Sugar page 88" /> The unoccupied western part of the country became part of the [[Habsburg monarchy]] as [[Royal Hungary]].

In 1686, two years after the unsuccessful [[siege of Buda (1684)|siege of Buda]], a renewed campaign was started to enter Buda. This time, the [[Holy League (1684)|Holy League]]'s army was twice as large, containing over 74,000 men, including [[Holy Roman Empire|German]], [[Croat]], [[Dutch people|Dutch]], Hungarian, English, Spanish, [[Czechs|Czech]], Italian, French, [[Burgundians|Burgundian]], [[Danes|Danish]] and Swedish soldiers, along with other Europeans as volunteers, [[artillery]]men, and officers. The Christian forces [[Siege of Buda (1686)|seized Buda]], and in the next few years, all of the former Hungarian lands, except areas near Temesvár ([[Timișoara]]), were taken from the Turks. In the 1699 [[Treaty of Karlowitz]], these territorial changes were officially recognized as the end of the rule of the Turks, and in 1718 the entire [[Kingdom of Hungary]] was removed from [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman rule]].

=== Contemporary history after Unification ===
{{See also|Hungary during World War II}}

[[File:Foldalatti Andrassy.png|thumb|left|[[Line 1 (Budapest Metro)|Millennium Underground]] (1894{{ndash}}1896), the second oldest metro in the world (after the [[Metropolitan line]]{{citation needed|reason=There are several older London lines|date=May 2024}} of the [[London Underground]])]]
[[File:Jakobey Buda ostroma 2.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Hungarian Revolution of 1848|Hungarian revolutionary army]] liberates the Buda castle in May 1849.]]

The 19th century was dominated by the Hungarian struggle for independence<ref name=Encarta /> and modernisation. The national insurrection against the [[Habsburgs]] began in the Hungarian capital [[Hungarian Revolution of 1848|in 1848]] and was defeated one and a half years later, with the help of the Russian Empire. 1867 was the year of [[Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867|Reconciliation]] that brought about the birth of [[Austria-Hungary]]. 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 [[Széchenyi Chain Bridge|Chain Bridge]] linking Buda with Pest was opened as the first permanent bridge across the Danube<ref>{{cite book |last=Hughes |first=Holly |title=Frommer's 500 Places to Take Your Kids Before They Grow Up |publisher=Wiley Indianapolis Composition Services |chapter=7 Famous Briges |isbn=978-0-470-57760-8 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wd0znOQhqOwC&q=chain+bridge+budapest&pg=PA91 |date=13 August 2009}}</ref> and in 1873 Buda and Pest were officially merged with the third part, Óbuda (Old 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 [[Danube Swabians|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%.<ref>Budapest statisztikai évkönyve 1943 (Statistical Yearbook of Budapest, 1943), p. 33, Hungarian Central Statistical Office</ref><ref>''Budapest székes főváros Statisztikai és Közigazgatási Évkönyve 1921–1924'' (Statistical Yearbook of Budapest, 1921–1924), p. 38, Hungarian Central Statistical Office</ref><ref name="Budapest 1946 p. 12">Budapest statisztikai évkönyve 1944–1946 (Statistical Yearbook of Budapest, 1944–1946), p. 12, Hungarian Central Statistical Office</ref> 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"<ref name=Eleventh /> or "Judapest".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.judapest.org/faq/ |title=History of the word (Jewish-Hungarian Cultural Site) |language=hu |publisher=Judapest.org |access-date=21 May 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130531202859/http://www.judapest.org/faq/ |archive-date=31 May 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Jüdische Nachrichten |url=http://buecher.hagalil.com/mandelbaum/budapest.htm |title=Karl Pfeifer: Jüdisches Budapest (Jewish Budapest) |language=de |publisher=Buecher.hagalil.com |date=28 November 2004 |access-date=21 May 2013}}</ref> Budapest also became an important center for the [[Aromanian diaspora]] during the 19th century.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://dinitrandu.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Aromanians-in-Greece-Thede-Kahl.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://dinitrandu.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Aromanians-in-Greece-Thede-Kahl.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |title=Aromanians in Greece: Minority or Vlach-speaking Greeks? |first=Thede |last=Kahl |journal=Jahrbücher für Geschichte und Kultur Südosteuropas |volume=5 |pages=205–219 |year=2003}}</ref> In 1918, Austria-Hungary lost the war and collapsed; Hungary declared itself an independent republic ([[Republic of Hungary]]). In 1920 the [[Treaty of Trianon]] partitioned the country, and as a result, Hungary lost over two-thirds of its territory, and about two-thirds of its inhabitants, including 3.3&nbsp;million out of 15 million ethnic Hungarians.<ref name="Macartney37">{{cite book |last=Macartney |first=C.A. |title=Hungary and her successors – The Treaty of Trianon and Its Consequences 1919–1937 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1937}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=East on the Danube: Hungary's Tragic Century |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/09/world/east-on-the-danube-hungary-s-tragic-century.html |date=9 August 2003 |access-date=15 March 2008 |first=Richard |last=Bernstein}}</ref>

[[File:Operahaz 1893.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Hungarian State Opera House]], built in the time of [[Austria-Hungary]]]]
[[File:Ville de Budapest 1911.jpg|thumb|right|Bond of the City of Budapest, issued 1 May 1911]]
[[File:Lanc hid - Budapest 3 Febr 1946 Foto Takkk Hungary.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Széchenyi Chain Bridge|Chain Bridge]] was destroyed during the [[Siege of Budapest]].]]
[[File:Szent István körút a Falk Miksa (Néphadsereg) utca felől a Honvéd utca felé nézve. A szovjet csapatok ideiglenes kivonulása 1956. október 31-én. Fortepan 24787.jpg|thumb|right|Soviet tanks in Budapest (1956)]]
{{anchor|Allied air strikes}}In 1944, a year before the end of [[World War II]], Budapest was partly destroyed by [[Royal Air Force|British]] and [[United States Army Air Forces|American]] air raids (first attack 4 April 1944<ref>{{cite news |work=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/17889740 |title=RAF raids Budapest – second heavy attack |date=5 April 1944}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/47691625 |title=RAF Follows US Raid on Budapest |date=5 April 1944 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/11807143 |title=Budapest bombed by RAF |date=5 April 1944 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald}}</ref>).
From 24 December 1944 to 13 February 1945, the city was besieged during the [[Battle of Budapest]]. Budapest sustained major damage caused by the attacking Soviet and Romanian troops and the defending [[Wehrmacht|German]] and Hungarian troops. More than 38,000 civilians died during the conflict. [[Bridges of Budapest|All bridges]] were destroyed by the Germans. The stone lions that have decorated the Chain Bridge since 1852 survived the devastation of the war.<ref name=chbridge>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bridgesofbudapest.com/bridge/chain_bridge|title=Chain Bridge / Budapest|website=www.bridgesofbudapest.com|accessdate=1 September 2023|archive-date=24 January 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130124233109/http://www.bridgesofbudapest.com/bridge/chain_bridge|url-status=usurped}}</ref>

Between 20% and 40% of Greater Budapest's 250,000 Jewish inhabitants died through [[Nazism|Nazi]] and [[Arrow Cross Party]], during the [[Operation Panzerfaust|German occupation of Hungary]], from 1944 to early 1945.<ref>{{cite web |title=Budapest |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |url=https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005264 |access-date=18 July 2007}}</ref> <!-- links to relevant materials in the ''Holocaust Encyclopedia'' on the site of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. -->

Swiss diplomat [[Carl Lutz]] rescued tens of thousands of Jews by issuing Swiss protection papers and designating numerous buildings, including the now famous Glass House (Üvegház) at Vadász Street 29, to be Swiss protected territory. About 3,000 Hungarian Jews found refuge at the Glass House and in a neighboring building. Swedish diplomat [[Raoul Wallenberg]] saved the lives of tens of thousands of Jews in Budapest by giving them Swedish protection papers and taking them under his consular protection.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/wallenberg.html |title=Raoul Wallenberg |encyclopedia=[[Jewish Virtual Library]] |access-date=4 December 2014}}</ref> Wallenberg was abducted by the Russians on 17 January 1945 and never regained freedom. [[Giorgio Perlasca]], an Italian citizen, saved thousands of Hungarian Jews posing as a Spanish diplomat.<ref name="timeisrael">The Times of Israel, ''[https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-orchestra-honors-italian-who-saved-5000-jews-from-nazis/ Israeli orchestra honors Italian who saved 5,000 Jews from Nazis]'', 9 December 2014</ref><ref name="ushm">Interview to [[Giorgio Perlasca]] by the [[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]], 5 September 1990</ref> Some other diplomats also abandoned diplomatic protocol and rescued Jews. There are two monuments for Wallenberg, one for Carl Lutz and one for Giorgio Perlasca in Budapest.

Following the capture of Hungary from [[Nazi Germany]] by the [[Red Army]], [[Soviet occupation of Hungary|Soviet military occupation]] ensued, which ended only in 1991. The Soviets exerted significant influence on Hungarian political affairs. In 1949, Hungary was declared a [[Communism|communist]] People's Republic ([[People's Republic of Hungary]]). 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 (also see [[Stalin era]]).
On 23 October 1956 citizens held a large peaceful demonstration in Budapest demanding democratic reform. The demonstrators went to the Budapest radio station and demanded to publish their demands. The regime ordered troops to shoot into the crowd. Hungarian soldiers gave rifles to the demonstrators who were now able to capture the building. This initiated the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]]. The demonstrators demanded to appoint [[Imre Nagy]] to be [[Prime Minister of Hungary]]. To their surprise, the central committee of the "[[Hungarian Working People's Party]]" did so that same evening. This uprising was an anti-Soviet revolt that lasted from 23 October until 11 November. After Nagy had declared that Hungary was to leave the [[Warsaw Pact]] and become neutral, Soviet tanks and troops entered the country to crush the revolt. Fighting continued until mid November, leaving more than 3000 dead. A monument was erected at the fiftieth anniversary of the revolt in 2006, at the edge of the [[City Park (Budapest)|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 leadership.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.shapedscape.com/projects/memorial-to-the-1956-hungarian-revolution-and-war-of-independence |title=Memorial to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence |date=6 July 2017 |publisher=Shapedscape |access-date=6 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729004014/http://www.shapedscape.com/projects/memorial-to-the-1956-hungarian-revolution-and-war-of-independence |archive-date=29 July 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

From the 1960s to the late 1980s Hungary was often satirically referred to as "[[Goulash Communism|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 [[Line 2 (Budapest Metro)|M2 line]] was first opened, followed by the [[Line 3 (Budapest Metro)|M3 line]] in 1976. In 1987, Buda Castle and the banks of the Danube were included in the [[UNESCO]] list of [[World Heritage Sites]]. [[Andrássy 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&nbsp;million. In recent times a significant decrease in population occurred mainly due to a massive movement to the neighbouring agglomeration in [[Pest county]], i.e., suburbanisation.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/11871881.pdf |title=Suburbanization and Its Consequences in the Budapest Metropolitan Area |date=6 July 2017 |publisher=Tocqueville Research Center |access-date=6 July 2017 |archive-date=10 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171110165134/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/11871881.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In the last decades of the 20th century the political changes of 1989–90 ([[Fall of the Iron Curtain]]) concealed changes in civil society and along the streets of Budapest. The monuments of the dictatorship were removed from public places, into [[Memento Park]]. In the first 20 years of the new democracy, the development of the city was managed by its mayor, [[Gábor Demszky]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://budapest.hu/Lapok/Budapest-kor%C3%A1bbi-polg%C3%A1rmesterei-%C3%A9s-f%C5%91polg%C3%A1rmesterei.aspx |title=Former Mayors of Budapest (Budapest korábbi polgármesterei és főpolgármesterei) |date=6 July 2017 |publisher=Government of Budapest}}</ref>

In October 2019, opposition candidate [[Gergely Karácsony]] won the Budapest mayoral [[2019 Budapest mayoral election|election]], meaning the first electoral blow for Hungary's nationalist prime minister [[Viktor Orbán]] since coming to power in 2010.<ref>{{cite news |agency=Agence France-Presse |title=Blow for Hungary PM Orbán as opposition wins Budapest mayoral race |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/13/opposition-parties-candidate-wins-budapest-mayoral-race |work=The Guardian |date=14 October 2019}}</ref>