Sent: 01/07/2016
Arrived:15/7/2016
Thank you so much Trung for your help to complete my UNESCO collection.
Budapest, including the Banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter and Andrássy Avenue
UNESCO site
Date of Insscription: 1987
Brief synthesis
This stretch of the Danube has been the location of human
settlement since the Palaeolithic. It was the site of the Roman city of
Aquincum, situated to the north of the inscribed property which comprises parts
of two originally quite separate cities: Buda on the spur on the right bank and
Pest on the plain on the left bank. Pest was the first medieval urban centre,
devastated in 1241-2. A few years later the castle of Buda was built on a rocky
spur on the right bank by King Bela IV. Thereafter, the city reflected the
history of the Hungarian monarchy. After the end of the Turkish occupation,
recovery did not really begin until the 18th century. In the 19th century, the
city’s role as a capital was enhanced by the foundation of the Hungarian
Academy, housed from 1862 in a neo-renaissance palace, and by the construction
of the imposing neo-gothic Parliament building (1884–1904). W.T. Clark’s
suspension bridge, finalised in 1849, symbolised the reunification of Buda and
Pest, which did not actually come about until 1873. The symbol of the
development of the city as a modern metropolis was the radial Andrássy Avenue,
which was included in the property in 2002. From 1872, the Avenue radically
transformed the urban structure of Pest, together with the construction of the
European continent’s first underground railway beneath it in 1893-6.
As a centre for receiving and disseminating cultural
influences, Budapest is an outstanding example of urban development in Central
Europe, characterised by periods of devastation and revitalisation. Budapest
has retained the separate structural characteristics of the former cities of
Pest, Buda and Óbuda. One example thereof is the Buda Castle Quarter with its
medieval and characteristically Baroque style, which are distinct from the
extended and uniquely homogeneous architecture of Pest (with its historicising
and art nouveau styles) which is characterised by outstanding public buildings
and fitted into the ringed-radial city structure. All this is organized into a
unity arising from the varied morphological characteristics of the landscape
and the Danube, the two banks of which are linked by a number of bridges. The
urban architectural ensemble of the Andrássy Avenue (‘The Avenue’) and its
surroundings (Heroes' Square, the City Park, historic inner city districts and
public buildings) are high-quality architectural and artistic realisations of
principles of urbanism reflecting tendencies, which became widespread in the
second part of the 19th century. The scenic view of the banks of the Danube as
part of the historic urban landscape is a unique example of the harmonious
interaction between human society and a natural environment characterised by
varied morphological conditions (Gellért Hill with the Citadel and the Buda
Hills partly covered with forests, the broad Danube river with its islands and
Pest's flat terrain rising with a slight gradient).
Source: unesco.org
