Budapest

Budapest has trains under the ground.

One of them is very old. It was the first underground train in mainland Europe! Trams rattle along the streets too. In the hills, children help run a little railway.

Under Andrássy Avenue runs the Millennium Underground Railway, built between 1893 and 1896. It was the first underground railway on the European continent, and it still carries passengers today. Today the metro has four lines, and one of them runs under the Danube.

Horse-drawn trams first appeared in 1866, and electric trams in 1887. Today trams and buses fill the streets. To reach the wooded Buda Hills, you can ride an old cog railway or a chairlift up János Hill. There, the Children's Railway winds through the trees, and it is run mostly by children!

Transportation built Budapest's growth: the country's main roads and railway lines all radiate from the capital, which also has Hungary's largest bus terminal and its largest commercial airport, Budapest Ferenc Liszt International. Csepel Free Port on Csepel Island handles container freight on the Danube, and the international Danube Commission has its head office in the city.

Horse trams began in 1866 and electric ones in 1887; buses followed in 1915. UNESCO lists the Millennium Underground Railway (1893–1896), dug beneath Andrássy Avenue, as continental Europe's first underground railway; it remains in service, though its City Park stations were moved underground. The metro, built mainly in the 1970s, runs four lines, one under the river linking Buda and Pest. A cog railway, buses and a chairlift serve the Buda Hills, where János Hill reaches 527 m, the city's highest point, and the Children's Railway (Gyermekvasút) is managed largely by children.

Budapest has four seasons.

Winters are cold, and sometimes lots of snow falls. Summers can be hot. Spring and autumn are in between.

Budapest has cold winters and warm to hot summers. In January, the average high is about 3 °C and the average low about −3 °C, a little below freezing. In July, highs average about 28 °C and lows about 16 °C.

Snow can fall heavily in winter, and in summer heat waves with damp air can feel stuffy. About 535 millimeters of rain and snow fall in a year, and the wettest months are May to August. Long ago, the Danube often flooded Pest, until people tamed the river in the 1800s.

Britannica describes a climate transitional between the extremes of the Great Hungarian Plain and the milder, wetter hills of Transdanubia, with a mean annual temperature of about 11 °C. World Meteorological Organization normals for 1981–2010 give mean daily maxima and minima of 2.6 °C and −3.0 °C in January and 27.9 °C and 16.4 °C in July.

The WMO's monthly precipitation totals add up to about 535 mm, wettest in May and June at about 62–64 mm and driest in February at about 26 mm. Winter snowfalls can be heavy and temperatures can drop below −15 °C, while humid summer heat waves can make the air oppressive. Flooding was a constant threat to Pest until the river was regulated in the 19th century.

Hot water bubbles up from under Budapest.

People swim and relax in warm baths. The city has big museums, concert halls and an opera house. There is a big park on an island in the river.

Hot springs bubble up from deep under the city, and people have bathed in them since Roman times. Today Budapest has many thermal baths, where visitors soak in warm mineral water, and lots of swimming pools too.

Budapest is also Hungary's center for music, books, theater and science. The Hungarian National Museum was founded in 1802, and the pianist and composer Franz Liszt founded the city's famous music academy in 1875. The composers Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály both lived here. Green places include the wooded Buda Hills, with their footpaths, and Margaret Island, a park in the middle of the river.

Numerous underground hot springs, carrying radium and other minerals, feed a large variety of thermal baths; bathers have sought them out since Roman times. Britannica also notes an unusual number of bookshops and swimming pools.

The capital dominates Hungary's cultural life: broadcasting and film are based here, most leading schools and universities are here, and so are the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and most of its research institutes. Composers Ferenc Erkel, Ernst von Dohnányi, Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály lived in the city. The Hungarian National Museum dates from 1802; the music academy founded by Franz Liszt in 1875 is internationally known; the Opera House was restored in 1984; and the National Theatre (2002) and Müpa Budapest (2005) stand by the Danube. Between the 1840s and 1918 the population grew from about 100,000 to 1,000,000, mainly through people moving in from villages and towns; Britannica describes today's city as almost entirely Hungarian-speaking, apart from its many visitors.