Ságvári Ágnes (szerk.): Budapest. The History of a Capital (Budapest, 1975)
Budapest in the First Twenty Years of the Council System (1950-1970)
ten years the rate of development of other Hungarian cities is today already double and that of the regional centres treble Budapest’s rate of development. As a result, the inhabitants of Budapest amounted to 19 per cent of the Hungarian population in 1970. The extraordinary progress of the capital and the outlying districts is to a large extent due to its industrial development together, of course, with favourable natural and economic conditions. The construction of a modern industrial centre, growing to a great metropolis, encourages the spread of a whole new conurbation around it. Between 1949 and 1960 the population of Budapest grew by 1.5 per cent annually, between 1960 and 1970 by 1.0 per cent, and in the same twenty years the population of Budapest together with its immediate surroundings grew from 1.8 million to 2.3 million. On account of the need for urbanization and the development of the infrastructure the municipal leadership together with the Hungarian Government, embarked on an immense building programme. Housing Estates, District Centres The reparation of war damage and slum clearance progressed somewhat slowly under the building programme begun in the mid-fifties. Budapest’s stock of housing increased from 464,(XX) units in 1949 to more than 630,000 by 1970, and the outlying districts were also urbanized to a considerable extent. More than half of the new homes are in buildings over four storeys high and every tenth home in houses over ten storeys high. In the last fifteen years most of the new housing developments were planted around the inner districts, because building was cheaper near already developed quarters. The city stock of houses was, generally speaking, increased through new housing estates. The development of these new housing estates demanded much subsidiary investment, and the investment per dwelling unit was consequently higher than had been in the case of homes built in the preceding period, even when allowance is made for rising prices. It is nevertheless the construction of new district centres that offers the best solution, because facilities in these settlements which were earlier considered part of the country-side, can be modernized and the over-heavy burden of the city centre reduced. A programme of building in the districts of Buda, earlier reserved for the privileged, could provide many new tenants with homes in the green belt. The new appearance of the town reflects the social changes that have occurred in Hungary. It is one of the prides of Budapest that in place of the Mária-Valéria relief tenements, once notorious for its misery, the modern Attila József housing estate has been built, in which more than 25,000 persons live today. 14,000 modern flats have been built in the place of the earlier poverty-ridden districts of Óbuda, Angyalföld and Újpest, today’s 3rd, 13th and 4th districts. In the old industrial quarter of the 11th district the number of homes has been doubled in twenty years. Adjoining Rákospalota, which could still be considered a small country town in 1949, the modem, urban Újpalota has been built (15th district). In Óbuda, which was once known for its cellar-dwellings and the highest infant mortality rate in the capital, a modern district has been constructed, and one of the new cultural centres—designed around the 18th century Zichy mansion—of the capital is also in this district. Seventeen new housing estates were built in the capital between 1949 and 1970. To increase the rate of building, factories have also invested money in housing. Loans 71
