The magic of discovery

Observing a Central & Eastern European city is exactly like reading the hopes, dreams, aspiration and pride of everyone who has contributed  to the construction or to the destruction of it.

Understanding a city means understanding the people who bring it to life from day to day.

Discovering the essence of a city is nothing else, but walking down the road of time, surrounded by sights and events which many people have seen, but is guided by signs of the details.

A magical city: Budapest

Budapest today is more than meets the eye – a magical exposure of episodes of the past 800 years. A walk across the city from many aspects resembles to a conversation with men and woman from different centuries.

Times do change and so does the world around us, but there shall always be eternal truths guiding our way – such as architecture. Of all arts architecture acts the most slowly, but surely on the soul -  it is art which you can walk through.

A little Hungarian history

The Celts

The first settlement on the territory of todays Budapest was the Celtic Ak-Ink (Abundant Water) founded before Christ , which was later occupied by the Roman Empire.

The Romans

The Roman settlement Aquincum became the main city of Lower Pannonia, a border province of the Roman Empire, in 106 AD (Anno Domini). The Roman citizens – mainly focusing on military activities constructed roads and amphitheaters.

The value of thermal water was discovered, bath constructions started and with a developed water pipe system the floors of houses heated were heated. following the collapse of the Roman Empire the province lost its original role.

The Hungarians

The 7 Hungarian tribes led by Árpád settled in the Carpathian basin – setting up the main headquarters on the territory of today Budapest at the end of the 9th century. Within one century –in the year 1000 – the Kingdom of Hungary was officially founded by Saint Stephan I (the great grandson of Árpád) – the first king of Hungary.

Legacy of the young nation was consolidated by the Vatican, as the crown was sent by Pope Sylvester II. Following this date Hungary remained a monarchy for close to 950 years.

The Mongolian Tatars

The invasion of the Tatar tribes in the 13th century quickly proved that defense is difficult on this geographical area, and also that the society structure is highly vulnerable.

King Béla IV of Hungary therefore ordered the construction of reinforced stone walls – we count this date the beginning of Budapest architecture – around towns and constructed the first royal palace on the top of the protecting hills of Buda – today known as the Castle hill. In 1361 Buda became the capital of Hungary.

The Italian Princess

The cultural influence of Buda was particularly significant during the reign of Matthias Corvinus of Hungary. Marrying the Italian princes Beatrix, Italian Renaissance arrived to the Hungarian capital. The Bibliotheca Corviniana – Europe’s greatest collection of historical chronicles and philosophic and scientific works in the 15th century – was founded, and became second in size to the Vatican Library.

The first Hungarian university in Pécs was founded in 1367 followed by  the second in Óbuda (today Old-Buda) in 1395. The very first Hungarian book was printed in Buda already in 1473 – only a few years after the birth of the Guttenberg galaxy.

The Turkish

Following internal disputes among the upper class and the ambitious expansion of the Turkish Empire, Hungary is torn into 3 pieces – with the largest area occupied by the Turkish. The occupation lasted close to 150 years between 1526 and 1689 (officially 1699).

The unoccupied western territory became part of the Habsburg Empire, while today’s Transylvania remained the Hungarian Kingdom, yet unofficial.

The Turkish occupation however brought not only sorrow and destruction, but also the revival of bathing culture, eastern arts, religion and culture which influenced not only everyday life of the time but can be discovered still today in Budapest and in the Hungarian language and cuisine.

The Habsburg family

When the Ottoman Empire was already knocking on the door of the western civilization, in 1686 a European military initiative – the Holy League’s army – was launched, setting as an aim the recapture of Buda.

With over 74,000 men, including German, Croat, Dutch, Hungarian, English, Spanish, Czech, Italian, French, Burgundian, Danish and Swedish soldiers, along with other volunteer European citizens, artilleryman, and officers, the Christian forces reconquered Buda.

Hungary was reunited by 1718 under the Habsburg crown – a controversial period of history full of revolutions, uprisings, internal dispute, stagnation followed by exceptional development and intellectual flourishing which lasted till the closing of World War I with the Trianon peace treaty in 1922 .