Among the notable ecclesiastical buildings are the Parish Church, the oldest in Pest, built about 1500, the Greek chapel, and the Jewish syna gogue. In the matter of parks and recreation grounds. Budapest has the Stadtwaldchen, a park covering about 1000 acres, with a charming lake, zoological garden, and numerous booths and side shows, similar to those found in the Wurstel Prater in Vienna. At the entrance of the park at the end of the Andrfissy boulevard is an arte sian well over 3000 feet in depth yielding over 26'0,000 gallons of water daily of a tempera ture of 165° F. Margaret Island, the property of Archduke Joseph, formerly the scat of a con vent founded by Saint Margaret in the Thirteenth Century, is now a park and is open to the pub lic. Budapest is the seat of the highest adminis trative authorities of the kingdom, of the Su preme Court of Justice, of the Prince Primate of (alternately with Gran), of a Roman Catholic vicar-general, a bishop of the Greek-Ori ental Church, and of a United States consulate. For administrative purposes Budapest is divid ed into ten municipal districts ( Bezirke), three of which are on the Buda side and the other seven on the Pest side of the river. The eity's affairs are by a First Burgomaster appointed by the King, a Burgomaster, two Vice-Burgo masters, and an executive board of eight mem bers, chosen for a term of six years by the muni cipal council of 400 members. who are themselves elected for the same term. Half of this number are chosen by the voters out of 1200 of the larg est taxpayers, men of superior education being rated at double the capital on which they actu ally pay taxes, thus providing special opportuni ties for the university element to assert itself in the council. As a result of the general Officiency of the municipal authorities, as well as of the desire of the inhabitants to make Budapest one of the leading capitals of Europe, the changes and improvements introduced since the granting of the new Hungarian Constitution in 1868 have been highly important. One of the first great problems which confronted the authorities was to provide better sanitary conditions for the city. A huge filtering plant was established for the treatment of the Danube water, which had hith erto been used unfiltered for drinking purposes; and the system of sewers was largely extended and improved, although refuse is still discharged into the river. The overcrowded dwellings of the poor and the damp cellars which sheltered a greats part of the working people were found also to contribute largely to the high death-rate. To remedy this, ordinances were passed prohibiting living in cellars, a great many of the crowded quarters were demolished, and in place of the one-story dwellings formerly so numerous, large airy tenements of from three to four stories have been erected.
At the head of Budapest's educational institu flows is the university, founded in 1635 at Tyrnau, which was removed to Buda in 1777, and to Pest in 1783, and in 1867 was completely transformed from a German to a Hungarian basis. Next fol low the Academy of Sciences, for the fostering of the Slaygar language and the sciences; the Royal Polytechnic; the Royal Veterinary Col lege; the Roman Catholic and Reformed semina ries, and the Military Academy (Ludoviea). There are some 10 gymnasia, a number of high schools, over 30 upper grammar schools, and more than 160 elementary schools, in which both Hun garian and German are taught. In addition to these there are innumerable mercantile and trade schools of every deseription, music and art schools, and educational institutions for the blind and for the deaf and dumb. The charitable in stitutions include a large general municipal hos pital, two belonging to the Red Cross Society, two military hospitals, and a number of others run by various charitable organizations, several lunatic asylums, a blind asylum, two orphan asylums, and two poorhouses.
Perhaps the most important branch of indus try is the production of flour and brae in the model mills, which have made Budapest one of the greatest milling centres in the world. In connection with this industry the municipality built a huge grain-elevator on the Danube quay, for the purpose of demonstrating the modern methods of handling grain. The manufactures
have developed within late years into great prom inence and embrace a wide variety of articles. Among the more important are machinery, agri •ultural] implements, carriages, cutlery, glass, majolica, porcelain. metal and leather wares, musical and scientific instruments, starch. ce ment, liquors, and beer. There are also a large Government firearms factory, three Governnumt tohaceo factories and shipbuilding yards. Buda pest is not only the largest industrial centre of Hungary, hut contains the greater part of its modern large industrial establishments. The number of stock companies doing business; in the city increased from 42 in 1889 to 149 in 1898, and their capital from 818,000,000 in the former year to $65.000,000 in the latter. The trade is of perhaps greater importance than the manufac tures, the chief articles of commerce being grain, wine, alcohol, tobacco, hemp, honey, wax, hides, feathers, and cattle, sheep, and swine. In 1880 the imports amounted in metric tons to 1,566, 238, the exports 806,419; in 1890, 2,420,027 and 1,322,718, and in 1898, 4,606,584 and 1,860,824 respectively. The commercial importance of Budapest is materially increased by the fact that it is the central point of all the Hunga rian railways, and in consequence the greater part of the agricultural produce is exported by way of the capital. The Danube also plays a prominent part in its commercial activity, as most of the grain is brought from the interior in huge barges, often having a capacity of over 600 tons, by way of this great waterway and its tributaries. As regards its street railway facili ties, Budapest compares favorably with any of the great capitals. It bears the distinction of being the first city successfully to demonstrate the entire practicability of the electric under ground trolley system. The first line was opened in 1889, and has proved entirely satisfactory, both from a mechanical and financial standpoint. An electric underground road opened in 1896 extends from the Giselaplatz near the river to the Stadtwaildchen; innumerable overhead trol ley lines and steam tramways connect the capital with its suburbs and neighboring towns, while the various hills on the Buda side of the river are ascended by cable or cog roads. Most of these lines were built and operated by private companies. but at the expiration of their char ters are to become the property of the city. The growth of population is shown by the following figures: in 1780 it was :35,215; in 1810, 60,259; in 1841, 107,240; in 1880, 360,551; in 1890, 492.237; in 1900, 713,383, or an increase of more than 45 per cent. in the last decade of the cen tury.
iiISTORY. It is known that in the Second Cen tury Buda was the site of a Homan camp, Aquin cum. Pest is first heard of in the Thirteenth Century, when it appears as a populous town inhabited mainly by Germans. In 1444 Matthias Corvinus fortified Buda and made it the capital of the country, but the citadel fell into the hands of the Turks after the battle of Mohtics in 1526, and from 1541 remained continuously in their possession till min. During this period of 160 years it stood six sieges, while the town of Pest was almost completely destroyed. Reoccupied by the Hapsburgs in 1686, Buda became a free Im perial city and prospered wonderfully in spite of a disastrous inundation which wiped out a large hart of the town in 1838. on May 21, 1848, after a heroic defense by Pent zi, the citadel of Buda was stormed by the Hungarians under Gargei, and Pest was for a brief time the capital of the revolutionary government. After the Ansyleich of 1867 Pest became the capital of the Hungarian Kingdom. In 1873 Buda and Pest were united as ItudapeAt.
ItinuouRA Yr iv, Szalay and Kahn, Die Ungar isclp ,l/ciropoic (1mla pest, 1889 ) ; Ilevest, Budapest and 8cinc 1 mgcbungen (1;tnlapest, 1873) ; "Budapest and Fiume," in Oesterreich isch-Ungarische Monarchic in Wort ynd.
Vol. III. (Vienna, 1893) ; Ungarns lcnniuin (1896) ; Kiirosy, Statistisches Jahr boric der Haupt- and leesidenz-Stadt IludapeRt (lindapest, 1891); Sha NV, .11 u Govern ment in Continental Europe (New York, 1897) ; Lewis, "Antiquities at Buda-Pest," in A rehcro logieul Journal, Vol. L. (London, 1893).