Budapest

Historical Background

Buda and Pest before Budapest

László Vörös published this map in 1833, when Buda, Pest and Óbuda were still separate towns. They were formally united as Budapest only in 1873. The map therefore records the settlements during an important period of urban growth, before the Chain Bridge provided the first permanent crossing between Buda and Pest.

Attribution

• Original title: Alap’s vizhelyezeti térképe Buda és Pest szabad királyi fő Városainak • Cartographer and publisher: László Vörös • Place of publication: Buda • Date: 1833 • Scale: Approximately 1:7,200 • Area shown: Buda, Pest, Óbuda and the adjoining course of the Danube • Map type: Combined city plan and hydrographic survey

A Map Centred upon the Danube

The broad course of the Danube dominates the map. Channels, islands, sandbanks, shorelines and river depths are recorded alongside lengthy notes explaining the behaviour and condition of the waterway.

Vörös was a qualified surveyor involved in measuring the Danube, and his map reflects that technical background. It is not simply a street plan: it examines the river as a physical system that affected navigation, construction and the future growth of both towns.

Buda, Pest and Óbuda

Buda occupies the hilly western bank, with the fortified Castle Hill and its closely built streets shown above the river. Óbuda appears farther north as a smaller and more loosely developed settlement.

Across the Danube, Pest displays a denser and increasingly regular street pattern. Its built-up centre is surrounded by expanding suburbs, fields, gardens, roads and undeveloped plots, revealing the direction in which the growing commercial town was spreading.

Before the Chain Bridge

No permanent bridge crosses the Danube on this map. Movement between Buda and Pest still depended upon boats, ferries and a seasonal temporary crossing.

Construction of the Széchenyi Chain Bridge began in 1840 and the bridge opened in 1849. Vörös’s map therefore preserves the appearance of the two principal towns before the structure that would physically and symbolically bind them together.

A Record before the Great Flood

The map was published five years before the destructive Pest flood of 1838. Its careful recording of channels, banks, islands and low-lying ground gives the hydrographic information particular historical significance.

The flood devastated large parts of Pest and prompted changes in building practices and flood protection. Vörös’s survey records the riverside landscape that existed shortly before that disaster.

The First Hungarian “Térkép”

The long Hungarian title is historically important because it contains the earliest known use of the Hungarian word térkép in the title of a published map.

The work is effectively two maps in one: a detailed plan of Buda and Pest and a technical survey of the Danube. This combination explains its unusual elongated format and the large blocks of descriptive text printed along the lower-right edge.

Details across the Landscape

The map distinguishes built-up districts, individual plots, gardens, vineyards, woodland, roads and areas of open land. A key near the upper edge explains the symbols used for different types of terrain and development.

Margaret Island—then commonly associated with the older name Nyulak-szigete or Rabbits’ Island—appears in the Danube, while the expanding town of Pest, the slopes of Buda and the settlements along both banks are rendered with remarkable precision.