Budapest

The story of Budapest

Budapest is three cities wearing one name: hilly Buda, ancient Óbuda, and flat, bustling Pest merged only in 1873. The Romans knew the spot as Aquincum, drawn, like everyone since, by the hot springs that bubble under the city.

After Ottoman rule left behind domed baths still steaming today, the Austro-Hungarian compromise of 1867 set off a golden age: Pest sprouted boulevards, the continent's first metro line (1896, still running its pretty yellow carriages), and a Parliament built to be the largest in the world, its dome exactly 96 metres for the Magyar arrival of 896.

Curiosities: Budapest is the world's only capital with over a hundred thermal springs, the "City of Spas", where chess is played waist-deep at Széchenyi; the ruin bars of the old Jewish quarter grew from condemned courtyards into a nightlife institution; and the Chain Bridge lions allegedly lack tongues, to their sculptor's eternal embarrassment (they have them, look closely).