In Depth

Did You Know??

A network consisting of 10km (6 1/4 miles) of tunnels, built in the Middle Ages for military purposes, lies underneath Buda's Castle District.

Budapest was the site of the European continent's first underground metro line, which you can still ride today (the Yellow line).

Budapest did not become a unified city until 1873, when Pest, Buda, and Óbuda merged.

The retreating Nazis blew up all of Budapest's bridges in the final days of World War II.

The Red Army liberated Pest from Nazi occupation on January 18, 1945, but did not manage to liberate Buda until February 13.

The Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, stationed in Budapest, saved thousands of Jews from Nazi deportation by issuing fake passports and setting up "safe houses," only to disappear himself into the Soviet gulag after the city's liberation.

Budapest's Jewish population (about 80,000) is the largest of any European city outside Russia.