Radó Dezső: Parks and Forests - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1992)

The picturesque view of Budapest comprises more than just its beautiful setting and buildings. The environment would look monotonous and bleak without parks and forests. The Embankment by the Danube would not be so inviting for taking a walk without trees. A street with no greenery has no use apart from conducting the traffic.

The green carpet of the city is not only pleasing to the eye, but it is also quite refreshing. If you are fed up with the smoke of cars and need more oxygen, it is good to go out to Margaret Island, to have a rest on one of the benches under the plane trees of Kodály körönd, or even to take a walk in the forests of Buda.

Parks and squares

Margaret island (Margitsziget)

The island is 2.5 km long, its greatest width at about the Palatínus bath is approximately 500 m, and its area is 96 hectares.

The island was already used by the Romans as is witnessed by the old stones. In the 4th century a pile bridge connected Óbuda with the island. The governor of Pannónia had a colossal palace on the neighbouring island - today called Hajógyári (Shipyard) Island. This neighbourhood was a kind of suburb of Aquincum, the main Roman settlement to the north.

The momentous centuries of the great migrations did not allow any development on the island. The next record dates back to the era of kings from the Árpád dynasty. First they used the island for hunting. King Imre, who reigned from 1196 to 1204, had his court here. At that time the island was called Lords’ Island then later Rabbits’ Island.

The oldest among the buildings preserved on the island today is the St. Michael Chapel of the Premon- stratensian Order dating back to the era preceding the Mongol Invasion of 1241-42. Its main nave in Romanesque style was restored by architect Árpád Lux in 1930. The famous Dominican monastery was built by Béla IV for his daughter Margaret around 1250. The king often visited the monastery with the queen and it was on the island when he died in 1270.

The ruins of the cloister clearly display the layout of the building. The first horticultural vestige of Hungary is found here: the monastery garden was equipped with an aqueduct as early as in 1250.

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