At the Castle Hill, in the city of Budapest, the capital of Hungary

 Budapest, like Prague, has enchanted writers, thinkers, creative souls, and philosophers for ages.

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(in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, and seat of Pest megye (county) The city is the political, administrative, industrial, and commercial center of Hungary. The site has been settled since prehistoric times and is now the home of about 20% of the country’s population.

+ Once called the “Queen of the Danube,” Budapest has long been the focal point of the nation and a lively cultural center. The city straddles the Danube River in the natural setting where the hills of western Hungary meet the plains, stretching to the east and south. It consists of two parts, Buda and Pest, which are situated on opposite sides of the river and connected by bridges.

+ Although the city’s roots date to Roman times and earlier, modern Budapest is an outgrowth of the 19th-century empire of Austria-Hungary, when Hungary was three times larger than the present country. Its reduction in size after WWI did not prevent Budapest from becoming, after Berlin, the second largest city in central Europe. The capital, as the seat of government and the center of Hungarian transport and industry, now dominates all aspects of national life. Tens of thousands of commuters converge on Budapest daily, more than half the country’s university students attend school in the city, and about half the country’s income from foreign tourism is earned here.

+ At the center of the Carpathian Basin, Budapest lies on an ancient route linking the hills of Transdanubia (Hungarian: Dunántúl) with the Great Alfold (Great Hungarian Plain). The Danube was always fordable at this point because of a few islands in the middle of the river. The city has distinct topographical contrasts: Buda is built on the higher river terraces and hills of the western side, while the considerably larger Pest spreads out on a flat and featureless sand plain on the river’s opposite bank.

+ Budapest stood apart from the relatively drab capitals of the other Soviet-bloc countries; it maintained an impression of plenty, with smart shops, good restaurants, and other amenities. The dissolution of the Soviet bloc and Hungary’s transition away from socialism brought Budapest new opportunities for prosperity and an influx of Western tourists (along with the stresses of transition to a more Western-style economy). The city, including the banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter, and Andrássy Avenue, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987.

+ Depicted here is Castle Hill, a kilometer-long limestone plateau towering 170 meters above the Danube. It contains some of Budapest’s most important medieval monuments and museums. Below it is a long network of caves formed by thermal springs.The walled area consists of two distinct parts: the Old Town to the north, where commoners once lived, and the Royal Palace to the south, the original site of the castle built by Béla IV in the 13th century and reserved for the nobility.