Tanulmányok Budapest Múltjából 28. (1999) – Urbanizáció a dualizmus korában: konferencia Budapest egyesítésének 125. évfordulója tiszteletére a Budapesti Történeti Múzeumban

A VÁROSI ÁTALAKULÁS KÉRDÉSEI ÉS SZÍNTEREI - Czaga Viktória: A főváros egyesítése a budaiak szemszögéből 13-21

VIKTÓRIA CZAGA THE UNIFICATION FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF THE OPPONENTS IN BUDA TOWN SUMMARY Having gained independence after the 1867 Compromise, Hungary needed to establish a national seat, a worthy capital city, by unifying Buda, Pest and Old Buda. Until the unification was carried out five years later, both the opponents of the unification, and the town-councillors who were in favor of it, made their views publicly known. The first one was Mór Szentkirályi, the Mayor of Pest, who already expressed his grave doubts in the beginning of 1868. The poverty of Buda, deriving from its indebtedness, was at the top of the list of his worries. He was not the only one, however, who brought up counter arguments. A sizable group of the Buda middle class was also against the unification. While they admitted the poverty of their own town, they were afraid that Buda, despite giving up its title as capital (which it had held for several centuries) due to the unification, would not receive their fair share from the dynamic development of the twin city on the opposite bank of the Danube. The lecture strives to determine the financial state of the town of Buda, when it became part of the capital, and whether the misgivings towards the unification on either side of the Danube were justified or not. 21