Budapest

The Romans built Aquincum on the Danube frontier, and in 106 AD it became the main city of the province of Pannonia Inferior; its streets and amphitheatre survive in Óbuda. After the Magyar conquest the area grew around three settlements: Óbuda, Pest on the flat eastern bank, and later Buda, where Béla IV built a castle on the hill after the Mongols pillaged the area in 1241. Buda became a royal seat, and under Matthias Corvinus in the 15th century it was a Renaissance court.

The Ottomans took Buda in 1526 and 1529 and occupied it for good in 1541. Nearly 150 years of Ottoman rule followed, and some of the baths built in that period, the Rudas and Király among them, are still in use. A Habsburg-led army retook Buda in 1686, and the towns were slowly rebuilt and resettled. Pest became the centre of the revolution of 1848; the Chain Bridge, the first permanent bridge across the Danube, opened in 1849, and in 1873 Buda, Pest and Óbuda were united as Budapest.

The new capital grew fast. The millennium of 1896 brought Andrássy út's underground railway, the first on the European continent, and the city was rebuilt with grand boulevards, the Parliament and the market halls. The 20th century was harsh: air raids in 1944, the siege from 24 December 1944 to 13 February 1945, which wrecked much of the city, and the murder of a large part of its Jewish community. In October 1956 the revolution against communist rule began in its streets. Since 1989 the city has restored its historic centre and become a major tourist destination.

Budapest thinks of itself as two cities. Buda, on the hills to the west, is residential, green and quiet; Pest, on the plain, holds the government, the business district, the theatres and most of the nightlife. The river between them, with its bridges, the Parliament and Castle Hill, is the city's shared symbol, and the banks of the Danube, the Castle District and Andrássy út are listed together as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The thermal baths are part of ordinary life. More than a hundred springs feed bath complexes where people swim and soak in every season, and the Ottoman-era domes of Rudas sit alongside the neo-baroque palace of Széchenyi. The coffee houses are part of the city's tradition, and classical music runs deep: the Liszt Academy, founded by Franz Liszt, and the State Opera on Andrássy út are among the busiest venues, and the Budapest Spring Festival is the city's main arts festival.

Since the early 2000s the ruin bars of the old Jewish Quarter, set up in the courtyards of rundown tenements, have made Budapest known for its nightlife, while the Dohány Street Synagogue, the largest in Europe, serves the fifth largest Jewish community on the continent. Sport also has a large following: the Puskás Aréna, with nearly 70,000 seats, hosted the 2026 UEFA Champions League final, and the city staged the World Athletics Championships in 2023.

Budapest itself had more than 1.7 million registered residents in 2017, and about 3.3 million people live in the wider metropolitan area, around a third of Hungary's population. The city produces more than 40 per cent of the country's economic output and is home to the national government, the head offices of the largest Hungarian companies, such as MOL and OTP Bank, and more than 30 universities with over 150,000 students. Tourism is a large employer: the city received about 7 million international overnight visitors in 2025.

The city is divided into 23 districts, each with its own mayor and council. Many residents live in older apartment blocks in the inner Pest districts, on the greener Buda side, or in the large housing estates built under communism. Since the 1990s many families have moved to the surrounding suburbs of Pest county, and the city's population has fallen from its 1980s peak of about 2.1 million.

Public transport carries more than two million passengers a day, and the yellow trams on the Grand Boulevard and along the river are part of the daily routine. Lunch is traditionally the main meal of the day, and the inner districts stay busy late into the evening.

Budapest's food culture grew up in its coffee houses and pastry shops. The Dobos torte, a sponge cake layered with chocolate buttercream and topped with caramel, was invented by the Budapest delicatessen owner József C. Dobos in the late 19th century, and Café Gerbeaud, opened in 1858 and on Vörösmarty tér since 1870, is among the city's traditional coffee houses. The Ottoman period left its mark too, in sweets such as the white nougat called törökméz, in stuffed peppers and in töltött káposzta, stuffed cabbage.

Everyday eating is plainer. Lángos, deep-fried flatbread, is sold at markets, fairs and bus stations; főzelék, a thick vegetable dish that sits between a soup and a stew, is eaten as a lunchtime main course or alongside meat. The Great Market Hall, opened in 1897 at the end of Váci utca, is the largest and oldest indoor market in the city, with stalls of paprika, sausages and other produce, while neighbourhood halls such as the Rákóczi Square Market Hall serve local shoppers.

Unicum, the bitter herbal liqueur, is made by Zwack, one of the large Hungarian companies headquartered in the city. The bars of District VII have made the ruin bar, set up in an abandoned building, a Budapest institution, and the Gozsdu Courtyard nearby is known for its cafés and bars.