As early as the Palaeolithic era, there were settlements in the area of Budapest: the narrowing of the Danube made the crossing of the river easy at this particular spot. In around AD 100, the Romans established the town of Aquincum here. Their rule lasted until the early 5th century AD, when the region fell to Attila the Hun. It was subsequently ruled by the Goths, the Longobards and, for nearly 300 years, by the Avars. The ancestors of modern Hungarians, the Magyars, migrated from the Urals and arrived in the Budapest region in 896. They were led by Prince Árpád, Huny, whose dynasty ruled until the 13th century. At the turn of the first millennium, St. István, whose heathen name was Vajk, accepted Christianity for the Hungarians. As their first crowned king, István I also laid the basis of the modern Hungarian state. It was Béla IV who, in 1247, after the Mongol invasion, moved the capital to Buda. Much of the expansion of Buda took place under kings from the dynasty of the Angevins. Buda reached a zenith during the reign of Mátyás Corvinus in the 15th century, but further development was hindered by the advancing Turks, who took the region and ruled Buda for 150 years.
Liberation by the Christian armies resulted in the submission of the country as a whole to the Habsburgs. They suppressed all nationalist rebellions, but at the same time took care of economic development. Empress Maria Theresa and Archduke Joseph, the emperor's governor, made particular contributions to the modernization of both Buda and Pest.
Yet, the slow pace of reforms led to an uprising in 1848, which was brutally crushed by Franz Joseph I. Compromise in 1867 and the creation of ah Austro-Hungarian Empire stimulated economic and cultural life once more. Soon after, in 1873, Buda and Pest were united to create the city of Budapest. Following World War I, the monarchy fell and Hungary lost two thirds of its territory .The desire to regain this contributed to its support of Germany in World War II. However, Budapest was taken by Russian troops in 1945 and large sections of it levelled. Under the subsequent Communist rule, the popular uprising of 1956 was ruthlessly suppressed by Soviet tanks but, it initiated a crisis that shook the regime. Free elections took place in 1990, resulting in the victory of the democratic opposition, and the emergence of a new bourgeoisie.
Budapest lies in the north-central part of Hungary, some 250km south-east of Vienna. It is by far Hungary's largest city and has for its borders Csepel Island in the Danube River to the south, the Danube Bend to the north (24km), the Buda Hills to the west and the start of the Great Plain to the east (29km). The focal point is the Danube River, which divides the city into two quite distinct halves: Buda, mostly residential and built on the hills and high river terraces of the western side, and commercial Pest on a large, sandy plain across to the east. It is a large, sprawling city measuring 525 sq km and, with few exceptions (eg. Buda Hills, City Park, some excursions), the areas beyond the Nagykörút (literally the 'Big Ring Road') in Pest and west of Moszkva tér in Buda are residential or industrial and of little interest to visitors. Budapest is a well laid-out city in which it is almost difficult to get lost. It is divided into 23 kerület, or districts, which usually have traditional names like Lipótváros (Leopold Town) or Viziváros (Watertown).
National Regions Although Hungary is divided into 19 administrative counties (megye), these will mean little to outsiders. But it will be helpful to at least know the names of the eight main regions: Budapest and its environs; the Danube Bend to the north; Western Transdanubia to the west and north-west; Lake Balaton and Central Transdanubia to the south-west; Southern Transdanubia to the south and south-west; the Great Plain to the east and south-east; the Northern Uplands to the north and north-east; and the North-East itself.
