budapest Photos

BUDAPEST is a UNESCO world heritage site.

Capital of Hungary and secondary capital of the former Austro-Hungarian empire, Budapest is considered one of the most beautiful European cities. It is home to the world’s third largest Parliament building and also Europe’s oldest underground railway and the second oldest one in the world (1894-1896). It also boasts Europe’s largest synagogue and the second largest working one in the world. In 1880, 23% of Budapest’s population was Jewish, and today it still has the largest Jewish population of any European city.

It is on the course of the Danube, and beautiful buildings and bridges of very special architecture adorn the course of the river through this city. The neo-Gothic Parliament building, St. Stephen Church, the Buda Castle, Matthias Church and the bridges across the Danube – all these special monuments are symbols of Budapest. The city had a boom during the reign of Matthias Corvinus, when it came to be one of most renowned in Europe. The Corvinian Library was second only to the Vatican with its collection of historical, philosophical and scientific documents.

Budapest has a rich history whose beginnings are Celtic. Then came the Romans, then the invasion of the Huns in the 9th century, then that of the Mongols in the 13th century, the 150-year Ottoman rulership – when almost all Christians left the town – and finally the unification of Buda and Pesta and the Austro-Hungarian period.