BUDAPEST

Budapest is the capital city of Hungary, the ninth-largest city in the European Union by its population of 1,75 million. Budapest is the child of the Danube; the river is the primary element of Budapest’s identity, historic development and its sustainable and liveable future. Budapest was founded in 1873, through the unification of three historic towns: Buda, Pest and Óbuda. The Hungarian capital became the biggest city on the Danube, the most important industrial, commercial, cultural centre of the region and the gateway of Western Europe to the East. The city’s present form, greater Budapest, was born in 1950, through the addition of 16 settlements situated along the outer belt. Nowadays, Budapest is a city, a county, and an independent EU Region since January of 2018. But the city functions as the center of the Budapest metropolitan area comprising one third of the population of Hungary.