Getting around... Budapest

As one of the major cities in Europe, the Hungarian capital Budapest boasts a wide range of travel options. As in all former Warsaw Pact states busses dominate public transport. In Budapest there are both normal buses and trolleybuses (electrical busses fed by an overhead cable like a tram). Furthermore there are over 30 tramlines that connect the inner city to the suburbs and out-lying housing projects. For long-distance travel car and  train are the most used - and useful. Budapest also boasts the first continental underground railway. The rest of the metro system was built during the Soviet-era or recently in the EU-era. It is also recently that a biking initiative has come into existence, with several cycle lanes being built.

On op the most spectacular modes of transport is the funicular or Budavári Silko (shown left) up Castle Hill. Equally spectacular are some of the new metro stations on Line 4. Shapely glass domes provide light and interest. On the 1970s lines - here Line 3 - the old Soviet rolling stock (on the right) is still in daily use. Combined with the decor of the stations on this line, you can imagine yourself back in time...

The trolleybus has its own sign. These buses only run on the Pest-side of the city. Trams run throughout the city. In the middle an example of a modern tram on the Danube riverfront. In places wide cycle lanes have been built parallel to the tram tracks. No hyperbolic names (cycle super highway) here thankfully!

Habsburg capital Pest: expansion and axial interventions

The Hungarian capital Budapest was created by the incorporation in 1837 of three much older cities: Buda, Pest and Obuda. The name for this new city reflects this as it is a conjunction of the two largest cities of the three. An alternative form was written as Buda-Pest. Of the three urban cores Obuda is the oldest. There was a roman settlement and military camp here from 29 AD called Aquincum. At the heart of Pest and further north near Margetsziget a small roman fort was built on the bank of the Danube.

Pest is first mentioned in 1148 as the trade city opposite the castle on Buda-Hill (Budavári Hégy). As is often the case the church freedom is located on the old roman fortress. A settlement grew along two parallel roads on the floodplain of the Danube. It is unclear when this settlement was fortified with walls. The first fortifications from the eleven hundreds were most likely a raised bank with a paling on top. Most walled fortifications were constructed from the 13th century onwards. The well known semicircular shape with a high wall and 4 large gates was probably constructed under King Mathias Corvinus in the 15th century. After the recapture of the city from the Ottoman Turks by the Habsburg Emperor in 1686 the city lay in ruins and had to be rebuilt and resettled. Reconstruction adhered to the older medieval layout.

In 1704 Pest received the charter of Imperial Free City of the Habsburg Emperor. The construction of the Invalid Hospital (now the City Hall) between 1725 and 1735 resulted in a break of the medieval walls to create a better connection to existing roads and the market fields beyond the walls. By 1730 the area within the old walls has been completely repopulated and filled in. This quickly lead to the development of suburban settlements beyond the walls. In an effort to guide the spatial development and regulate the supply of fitting residential areas new suburbs were designed encircling the walled city during the second half of the 18th century, much like what was done in Vienna and Munich.

Again along the Germanic model, these suburbs were named after royal patrons. In 1777 Térezváros (Theresiënstadt) was named for Queen Mary Therese who had visited the area in 1751. The Alsó-Külváros (Lower Suburb) was renamed Józsefváros (Josefstadt) in 1the same year to honour Emperor Joseph II. In 1790 the northern suburb is (re)named Lipótváros (Leopoldstadt) in honour of king Leopold II. In 1838 a large flood destroys large parts of this and the other suburbs and it is rebuilt on a grid layout. In 1792 the development of a new suburb started in the south. It was named in honour of King Francis I of Hungary as Ferencváros (Franzstadt)  In 1882 a section of Térezváros was renamed in honour of the popular Queen Elisabeth (Sisi) as Erzsébetváros (Elisabethstadt).  

By 1780 more people were living in the suburbs than within the old city. This development required better communications. There had been no bridge across the Danube, but in 1761 a barge bridge was constructed linking Pest and Buda. The first bridge constructed was the Széchenyi Lánchid (Chain Bridge) opened in 1849.

As part of the planned suburbs wide radial streets were laid out that ended at the old city gates. On the north side several squares were laid out along a wide street from 1812 onwards. Before large market fields for livestock and horses were located here. The poor connectivity between the old city and the suburbs created congestion and traffic problems, so a rethink along the lines of Hausmann with large boulevards was planned. The initiative came from count Gyula Andrássy, the then Prime-Minister, who proposed a new boulevard belt road and radial in 1870. This plan included a small boulevard ring (Kiskörút) that replaced the former city defences, a large boulevard ring (Nagykörút), a new radial (Sugárút) and two new bridges on either end of the large semicircular ring road.

In 1900 a very Hausmannian intervention was proposed, with a new boulevard running straight through the old city centre from the east station across a new bridge towards a new square on flat terrain between Castle Hhill and Gellért Hill. This would materialise as the Kossuth Lajos út and the Erzsébet híd (Elisabeth Bridge). The boulevard was angled such that it avoids the medieval church of Mathew. At the same time most buildings around this church were torn down. The old central square was thus greatly enlarged, but lacks a clear spatial definition.

The axial interventions superimposed on the historic core of Pest. The seminal structure was a roman fortress located underneath the central square and church freedom (A). The second urban core was centred around a former abbey - now a university (B). To the north of this walled city on the market field the Erszébet tér (E) and Vörösmarty tér (V) were laid out. The Bajcsy Zsilinszky út (1) was built as a wide thoroughfare along the edge of Lipótváros. In similar fashion the Rákóczi út (2) and Üllöi út (3) were constructed. The National Museum (M) of 1849 predates the ring boulevard that was built over the former city walls. This Kiskörút connects indirectly to the Széchenyi Lánchid (H1 - 1849), and directly to the Szabadság híd or Liberty Bridge (H3 - 1896). The central Erzsébet híd (H2 -1903) connects to the new central boulevard.

Budapest is still very much a twin city with the hills of Buda in the west and the flat city of Pest in the east. Of the 5 bridges connecting this "inner city" span the wide Danube, 4 are part of the historic ring boulevard structure impose on the expanding capital of Hungary in the 19th century. Nowadays the city centre has expanded beyond the old walled city, but also includes parts of the planned suburbs within the 1877 Nagykörút.

The spatial structure of Budapest is dominated by the physical landscape and the 19th-century interventions. The double semicircular boulevard belt roads are the most prominent feature.This structure is mainly located in Pest (P) and avoids the hilly terrain of Buda (B), Budavári (V) and Gellért Hill with the Citadel (C). The flat "Watercity" Víziváros (Vv) is also avoided.The old city of Pest is encircled by planned suburbs starting with Lipótváros in the north via Térezváros (T), Erzsébetváros (E) and Jószefváros (J) to Ferencváros (F) in the south. Two large urban spaces, Vörösmarty tér (1) and Erszébet tér (2), form a buffer between the grid suburb of "Leopoldcity" with its central garden square (3) and the old city. At the edge of this suburb the parliament building (4) was built. Andrassy út (A) with the Opera HOuse (6) forms the back bone of "Theresiacity" beyond the outer belt boulevard. It culminates in Hörök tére (Heroes Square - H) on the edge of the City Park (Városliget - VL). Both railway stations (north station - 5 and east station - 7) are located on the edge of the planned suburbs near an important junction of radial roads. There are no formal ensembles along the boulevards! The National Museum (8) and the Corvinus University (9) are located directly adjacent to the inner boulevard. The 5 bridges started with the central Széchenyi Lánchid (h1) and was followed by the Margit híd (h2 - 1876), Szabadság híd (h3), Erzsébet híd (h4) and finally the Petöfi híd (1933), thus completing the circuit.  

Romkocsma, or the ruin bars of Budapest

The end of the Soviet Union gave many peoples in Eastern Europe the hope of rapid change and more freedom. The reality of democratic self-governance proved less rosy, as ordinary people profited little of the new capitalist model. This meant that people sometimes left the city, so buildings without a use fell into disrepair and the already abandoned buildings started to crumble and decay through the 1990s and the following decade. In 2004 Hungary joined the European Union and another wave op optimism swept the country. The result was mostly large-scale EU-funded projects like Metro Line 4 and the restoration of the various Unesco Heritage sites.

Impatient with the pace of modernisation, young people started to unite and start up their own project to create places to work, congregate, exchange ideas and so on from 2000 onwards. This resulted in abandoned buildings and sites being reclaimed for use as urban gardens, bars, restaurants and sharing-libraries. Szimpla Kert (Simple Garden) was the first of the so-called Romkocsma (literally: Bar in a Ruin) that opened in an abandoned building in 2001. Together with Food Trucks and Backyard Restaurants, Ruin Bars are part of the Pop-Up trend that expressed the desire of young Hungarian urbanites to develop their own current culture. There are an impressive number of vegetarian eateries among these initiatives.

The Pop Up trend firmly gripped the imagination after 2010 when the first food trucks started to appear. The first Food Truck Festival was so successful that nowadays abandoned plats house groups of these food trucks as an impromptu eatery. A well-known example is Karaván (left). Pop-up restaurants also appear on abandoned plots (Ráckskert on the right) or in empty buildings (Kazimir Bistró shown in the middle).

Pop Up restaurants and Ruin Bars like Szimpla Kert try very hard to radiate counterculture, but are to popular to truly succeed. Instead this Ruin Bar behind the ruined facade (on the left) is bustling with tourists and looks like a flea-market has exploded in a squat as every corner is crammed full of second hand reused furniture and bric-a-brac.