Szablyár Péter: Step by step - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2010)

The stairts of the old Tabán quarter

Wedged in between Gellért Hill and Castle Hill, the Tabán used to be a unique quarter of Buda. Its baths were very popular during the Turkish occupation of Hungary. Later on, Serbian settlers built houses for themselves along the sewer called Ördögárok (Devil's Ditch) and on the nearby slopes — that was when the area came to be called Rácváros, or Serb Town. The streets were reeking of the tannic acid used in the workshops of the tanners whose generations lived and worked in the area. Built in 1766, the pontune bridge on the Danube had its Buda-side end in the Tabán.

It was at the foot of the hill here that the first waterfront dock on the Buda side was built, as a result of which the quarter became a major hub of commercial routes connecting East and West. The place retained this function until the opening of the Chain Bridge. Viticulture was another key industry on the surrounding slopes, and the ever more densely populated quarter attracted large numbers of artisans and merchants settling down here. The population kept on growing steadily in spite of various disasters (such as the great fire of 1810 and the Devil's Ditch floods) striking the neighbourhood.

There were nearly a thousand houses standing on the stair-like terraces in the colourful quarter of the Tabán by the end of the 19th century. While the rows of houses were not even given names - the maps mark streets with numbers - the stairs were named, usually after various trades (masons, shepherds, etc.) or persons (Jacob's Stairs). The parallel streets were cut across by stairs and steep footpaths — as side streets of sorts. Although the houses had an urban character, with several inns, bars and shops among them, the pigsties were not missing from the backyards either.

The phylloxera epidemic of the late 19th century put an end to the Tabán’s viticulture; what came to be known as the Montmartre of Budapest became a romantic district of entertainment for writers, poets, artists and bohemian characters. Meanwhile, the fast-growing metropolis, the rapidly developing Castle District and the newly built Elizabeth Bridge next to it cast a shadow over the future of the Tabán, a backward quarter of poor housing conditions and derelict streets. The authorities made repeated plans for the radical clearance of the area, news of which provoked protests, and artist soon flocked here to preserve the sight of the winding Tabán streets on the canvas for posterity.

From the second half of the 19th century on, the Board of Public Works intended to improve the unfavourable conditions prevailing in the district. The flow of the Devil's Ditch was regulated and the sewer itself was covered, and with the maintenance of the baths having been taken over by the municipality the overall reconstruction of the whole Tabán area also became urgent. With the opening of Elizabeth Bridge, the tidying up of the bridge's environs at its Buda end, the laying down of

20