Budapest: an important city of the Austro-Hungarian Empire

The city of Budapest was founded in 1873 by the union of two ancient centers built since the Middle Ages along the banks of the Danube. These towns were Buda, located on the right bank of the river, and Pest, located on the left bank.

It seems that the Romans had already settled in the area by founding the city of Aquincum, which was an important military center along the borders of the empire. Aquincum was destroyed during the barbarian invasions. Subsequently, two centers formed along the Danube: one of a military nature, Buda, and the other of a mercantile nature, Pest.

TWO CITIES, ONE MILITARY AND ONE COMMERCIAL

Especially on the basis of being located on a hill close to the Danube river, the town of Buda was a military center and home to an important castle since the Middle Ages. The inhabited center of Pest was instead the main commercial and mercantile place of the Danube valley between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries.

Buda was the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Hungary, between 1361 and 1541, the year in which the city was conquered by the Ottoman Turks. In 1686 with the battle of Buda, Christian troops reconquered the city, which became part of the Habsburg domains permanently.

Above all under the Habsburgs the city of Budapest had a great development becoming, after Vienna, the second most important city of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This occurred mainly because the city is strategically located in the center of the Carpathian basin in the center of the country. The city is located along the course of the Danube and is crossed by an ancient communication route that connects the Transdanubian hills with the Hungarian Great Plain.

Budapest is today the main tourist destination of Hungary, thanks to its architectural beauties, which mostly date back to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In 1987 UNESCO included Budapest as a world heritage site.

The climate of Budapest.

Official website of the Municipality of Budapest.