Pesth, or more correctly BUDAPEST, because since 1873 it has been united with BUDA (Ger. Ofen) into one municipality, is the capital of Hungary, and next after Vienna the second city of the Austrian-Hungarian empire. It stands on the Danube, Buda on the right bank and Pesth on the left, 173 miles by rail SSE. of Vienna. The two towns are connected by three bridges, a chain bridge (designed by Clark Brothers of England in 1842-49), 1280 feet long, uniting the busiest quarters of the two; another, built in 1872-75, a little higher up (1555 feet long); and a railway bridge near the southern end of both towns. Pesth is essentially a modern place, the growth principally of the 19th century; it has many fine streets and squares, the magnificent quays (3 miles long) beside the Danube being the favourite promenades; the buildings are chiefly noteworthy for their substantial appearance and frequently large size. Amongst them may be enumerated the Jewish synagogue (the handsomest place of worship in the city); the parish church (1500) and the new Leopold basilica (1851-68); the national museum (after 1850), containing collections of pictures, ethnography, natural history, mineralogy, botany, numismatics, and plaster-casts, and a library of 400,000 volumes and 63,000 MSS.; the academy of sciences (1862), containing a small collection of valuable old pictures, another of engravings and drawings, and a library of 90,000 volumes; the university (1835), established first at Tyrnau, then at Buda in 1777, and lastly at Pesth in 1873, with 250 lecturers and 4000 students, equipped with excellent scientific laboratories, &c., and a library of 200,000 volumes; the custom-house (1870-74), barracks, military academy (1872), slaughter-house (1870-72), industrial and commercial museums; and the magnificent new parliament houses and the palace of justice, completed for the millennial celebration in 1896.
Whilst Pesth stands on a plain, Buda straggles over small steep hills, and is backed by vine-clad slopes. It is a much older town, its central features being the castle in the citadel (1749-71), with the chapel of St Sigismund, in which are preserved the crown regalia of Hungary and the hand of St Stephen; the church of the Ascension and that of St John (13th century); the palaces of the Honved ministry, the premier, and Archduke Joseph; the monumental tomb of Gul Babas (1543-48), a Turkish saint; and the national lunatic asylum (1860-68).
Both towns are exceptionally well provided with baths, which are supplied both by the Danube and by numerous natural springs of mineral waters. Some of these last—Hunyadi Janos, Rakoczy, &c.—are exported in large quantities in bottles. The artesian well in the public garden of Pesth has been already referred to under ARTESIAN WELL. The water-works of Pesth were planned and built by the English engineer Lindley in 1868. Both towns possess an unusual number of philanthropic institutions, such as hospitals, asylums, &c. There is in Pesth a polytechnic (in Buda, 1846-72), with faculties of chemistry, architecture, and engineering, attended by 620 students, who are taught by 70 lecturers. A great number of learned and scientific societies flourish; and there is a music academy. The people are gay and fond of amusement, especially horseracing and rowing. There are two beautiful public gardens, one in Pesth, the other on Margaret Island in the Danube, just above the town. The squares and streets of both Pesth and Buda are adorned with many statues of celebrated Hungarians. The following figures will show the extraordinarily rapid growth of Budapest: pop. in 1813 was 36,153; in 1833, 63,148; 1857, 116,683; 1869, 270,476; 1881, 370,767; 1891, 491,938. The last summation includes 11,000 military. The figure for 1881 embraced 75,794 in Buda and 294,973 in Pesth; amongst these were close upon 71,000 Jews, mostly living in Pesth. Budapest is the first manufacturing town of Hungary. The making of machinery and agricultural implements, wagons, and ships, the manufacture of spirits, tobacco, beer, gold and silver wares, cutlery, starch, glass, and innumerable other articles, the grinding of corn, washing of wool, and printing are all prosecuted on the large scale; there is here a small-arms factory. But the commerce is even more important: immense quantities of corn are brought into the town, and exported further either as corn or flour; wool, wine and spirits, oil-seeds and agricultural seeds, hemp, tobacco, plums (from Bosnia and Servia), honey and wax, bacon, hides, feathers, timber, coal, and manufactured wares are the principal articles of the extensive trade. Vast numbers of swine are fattened and killed in huge yards just outside Pesth.
The Romans had a military colony on the site of the modern Buda. In the 13th century there existed here a flourishing German town, Old Buda. This was destroyed by the Mongols in 1241; but it soon recovered from the blow. Buda was regarded as the capital of the country from the middle of the same century down to its capture by the Turks in 1527. From 1541 down to 1686 the Turks held Buda, though it was besieged half-a-dozen times by the Austrians. Pesth meanwhile was reduced to a heap of ruins; and it did not begin to recover until the first quarter of the 18th century. A century later it was rapidly outstripping its twin-sister Buda.
There are German books on Pesth by Hevesi (1873), Körösi (1882), Heksch (1882); and one in Hungarian, by Gerlóczy and Dulácsko (3 vols. 1879).