Ságvári Ágnes (szerk.): Budapest. The History of a Capital (Budapest, 1975)
Pest-Buda from 1686 to 1849
Pest-Buda from 1686 to 1849 (Selection of documents covering the period: V—VIII) The fate of Buda in the modern age, following its liberation, differed from that of most European capitals. Most of these, as for instance Paris and London, by the end of the Middle Ages had already become the leading cities of their respective countries, the royal seat, the administrative, economic and commercial centres. These capitals continued to develop within the framework of their established and confirmed role in the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, evolving under the demands of capitalism into great industrial metropolitan centres. But the historical past which had been the glory of Buda, the capital of medieval Hungary and its sister city, Pest, was of no avail at that juncture. These towns had to start again from the beginning on the arduous path that led to a reconstructed Buda that was an important centre and a capital city. The allied army had only succeeded in conquering the fortress of Buda after an onerous siege lasting nearly three months. Once the Turks had been driven out, the two cities had to be rebuilt completely and settled with new inhabitants. It took decades for the revival of ruined cities, depopulated by the long siege, and devastated by the pillage and arson of the conquering armies. Such disasters—wars, natural calamities—had been the fate of other cities, too. The peculiar situation of Hungary, however, was due to the fact that the Turkish occupation had lasted one and a half centuiies, the country had been dismembered, and had then fallen under the rule of the Hapsburgs. As a result, the position of the cities had changed. The former capital lost its earlier dominant role: after the liberation Buda and Pest sank to the position of provincial towns under the rule of absentee landlords. It was only after a tenacious struggle and great financial sacrifices over some twenty years that in 1705 the two cities succeeded in regaining the charter, issued in 1703, which once again gave them the rights of royal free cities. And another six years were to pass before they were able to translate these paper rights into fact. Although the 1703 charter referred to Buda as the capital, it remained an empty title for a long time. The sovereign lived in Vienna, and the main government departments and administrative centres, and, when in session, the meetings of the Diet were in Pozsony (now Bratislava, Czechoslovakia). At the beginning of the eighteenth century, when the resettlement and reconstruction of Buda and Pest was completed, no other Hungarian city could claim to be the genuine centre, the real capital of the country. The Rise to Capital Status The eighteenth century marked the progress of Buda and Pest from two small provincial towns, only lately rebuilt from their ruins, and with comparatively few inhabitants at the beginning of the century, to the position of the largest commercial and administrative centre of the country. In the first decades of the century, life in the two cities still recalled that of medieval cities. The principal source of livelihood for most of the population was still agriculture. Most 25
