ABSTRACT
Budapest has about one and a half million inhabitants, a sixth of the total population of Hungary. It is the geographical heart of the State and virtually monopolizes its industry and commerce as well as being its political and cultural capital. Like Prague, it has a hill fortress on the left bank of the Danube, the site of the ancient Buda, while the modern town of Pest lies on the plain on the east bank of the river. Pest has grown from a settlement of comparatively recent origin similar to the overgrown rural villages of the Alfőld, whereas Buda was comparable to the fortress settlements of the German lands. The royal palace in Buda was erected in 1247, and down to 1526 it was the capital of the kings of Hungary. From that year the Turks held the citadel of Buda for 150 years. Pest was derelict, and shortly after the expulsion of the Turks in 1686 it had (1710) less than 1,000 inhabitants. Maria Theresa established a University at Buda in 1777, but it was transferred to Pest in 1784. After 1867 Pest developed rapidly at the expense of Buda. Development has therefore been essentially modern. The population reached 107,000 in 1841 and 300,000 in 1870. The city has attracted a heterogeneous population, and it was not till 1880 that the Hungarian element became dominant. Greater Budapest includes a circle of communes whose population has risen from 12,000 in 1830 to 415,000 in 1930. Even beyond this circle increases of population are recorded since the end of the 19th century through the extension of railways and tramways to the villages. These outlying communes have doubled their population since 1880, and now have 250,000 people, and while those engaged in farming have decreased by 5 per cent., the proportion of those engaged in industry and commerce has increased by three-quarters. Thus, while the population of Budapest proper is about one million, that of the whole complex socially and economically associated with it, based on the range of the increase of population, numbers one and a half millions. —The Functional Zones of Budapest. (Scale 1 : 75,000.) https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315007618/83a65ae9-ba6e-4667-a6f4-7036e5170590/content/fig51_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
