Budapest 150

2024.05.08. 10:59

We celebrate the birthday of our capital on this day every year, as Pest, Buda and Óbuda were united on 17 November 1873. Of course, we haven't forgotten the celebrated one either, we've put together a collection of our previous virtual exhibitions related to Budapest, so we wish you a very happy 150th birthday, Budapest!

Our earliest Budapest-related exhibitions

Demolished memories, lost buildings - Budapest

Let's discover which was the city's most expensive building and why, what buildings replaced the hotels on the Danube bank in Pest, how the busiest or most important meeting places for Pest residents - Deák Ferenc Square, Blaha Lujza Square or Kálvin Square - were transformed, and why the City Hall and one of Buda's most residential areas were demolished.

Latest exhibition, featuring a Budapest restaurant

Legendary Restaurants - Apostolok

Is it profanity that the first thing many people think of when they think of the Apostles is not twelve men, but a restaurant in Budapest? Maybe. The Apostolok restaurant and pub may be a profane place, but there was something sublime about it. Perhaps it was the pious apostles depicted above the dim booths of the restaurant that made you feel as if you had entered a chapel, where even the beer was being served in a solemn atmosphere. The first in our series (Legendary Restaurants), it is still in operation today, albeit co-tenanted with another legend, the Jégbüfé.

Our readers' favourites

Once and now; a walk in the Buda Castle

Most of the houses in the Buda Castle district are built on medieval foundations, but today only a few arches and seating booths remind us of this. When Buda returned to Christian hands after 145 long years, few of the houses and churches in the quarter, which had been under constant cannon fire, remained intact. In the Castle District, the street names are even more evocative than the ruins, such as the inviting Balta Street or Fortuna Street.

Semmelweis's Hospital

The first public hospital in Pest, the Rókus

Health care institutions have been present in Pest for centuries, but it was only with the opening of the St. Rókus Hospital that, which emphasised healing rather than care and separation, became available to citizens. Initially a poorhouse, the institution is associated with many important milestones in Hungarian health care: it played an important role during the plague and cholera epidemics of the 18th and 19th centuries, Ferenc Flór and Ignác Semmelweis worked here, and at the turn of the century X-rays were already used in diagnostics.

Gothic Revival in the capital city

In Gothic mood in Budapest

The architects of the old-style buildings in Budapest at the turn of the century, which were considered outdated, may not have imagined that their creations would become emblematic symbols of the city, attracting tourists from all over the world. Many of our Gothic buildings, such as the Parliament House, were not built in the Gothic period, and were very much behind the Neo-Gothic period.

Twins in the middle of the city

Kotild Palaces

Ferenciek Square owes its present form to the regulation of the centre of Pest, but even more so to the construction of the Elisabeth Bridge. It is unfortunate that the narrow, winding little streets, the old Pest City Hall and the many shops of Kígyó tér have also fallen victim to such a grand plan. But the bridge needed a road to carry traffic across it. This is how the square, which was the structural centre of the capital, changed its appearance at the turn of the century, and how new buildings such as the Klotild Palaces, which still dominate the square today, were built.

Budapest's birthday party runs from 17-19 November. The Municipality of Budapest is preparing a series of events, including the opening of the City Hall Courtyard and the reopening of the Merlin Theatre.

For more information on the programmes, please visit enbudapestem.hu

Digital Archive Development Department

translated by László Gönczi

Recommendation

Budapest anno

Development must go on! – as the phrase has it, but in practice we notice that it stops every now and then. The change – if it goes on its way – sometimes trends towards good, sometimes bad direction. It seems that it often stops completely without a state intervention. In case of certain changes, lucky circumstances (e.g. filling up of Rákos ditch) and sometimes misfortune play a role unfortunately (e.g. the disappearance of wines of Buda).

Klotild Palaces

Ferenciek Square owes its present form to the regulation of downtown Pest, but even more so to the construction of the Erzsébet Bridge. It is unfortunate that the narrow, winding little streets, the old city hall of Pest and many shops on Kígyó Square also fell victim to such a large-scale plan. However, the bridge needed a road to divert traffic to it. This is how the image of the square, which is the structural centre of the capital, changed at the turn of the century, and so new buildings were born, such as the Klotild palaces that still dominate the square.

Marketing

Vivid life on the market, enticing scents, piles of vegetables and fruits that either attract or deter you. Juicy gossips get on well with the market price of potatoes in this cavalcade, as well as the unmistakable voices of costers bargaining among rows with nosing chaps sneaking tiny goods. Our selection is going to show you not only the markets of Budapest, but also the rural ones: from the legendary Nagycsarnok (Great Hall) to the Vásárcsarnok (Market Hall) of Pécs.

A bridge as a link

In our language, the meanings related to a bridge or bridges and the metaphoric content of meaning emphasize their role of linking and interconnecting. In the urbanistic aspect, we can say that the history of the Budapest bridges is also the history of Budapest, but the situation is the same in the country too. The bridges that were exploded in the war and were rebuilt from scratch, the maimed elements of bridges during decades, served not only as functional elements, but also for spanning over borderlines or separating them. This week’s story is about bridges built between Buda and Pest, disappeared quarters, reconstructions and temporary solutions. Have a nice browsing!

The Cult of Empress Elisabeth

Public monument sculpture played a significant role in the image of 19th century settlements. However, the sculptures are not only about the changes that have taken place in the fabric of the city; they can also be used to trace the development of the cult of a given person, including the memory of Empress and Queen Elisabeth. Nowadays, the statue of Elisabeth looks at the Buda side calmly in the park next to the bridge named after her, even though it used to be an ornament of the Pest side. Most of the Queen’s monuments were made in the years after her death. Still, this monument in Budapest followed a series of statues more than 30 years later, when Sisi's memory had quite faded. What conditions hindered the completion of the work, and what was the cult of Elisabeth like at the beginning of the 20th century, will be revealed in our selection.

Aquatic stories

Nowadays, it is taken for granted that you can open the tap and get either cold drinking water or fine warm water. But only few people have this luck in the world and maybe our grandchildren will not be able to enjoy this comfort. How did water supply developed in Hungary since the ancient Romans? Would you ever think of how many aquatic relics you pass by during your days? Our aquatic exhibition is going to answer these questions.

More thematic virtual exhibitions