The phrase 'Central European' is not a merely a geographical definition. It refers to the fact that the Hungarian capital is a more than just the capital of a small country with 10.5 millions inhabitants: it is also the products of a larger area, of a particular European region: Central European.

The first town, built by Celts, occupied about 30 hectares along the slopes of Gellert Hill (first century BC).It was called Ak Ink (meaning 'spring rich in water'). Archaeological finds suggest that it may have been a densely populated settlement, with a separate district of craftsmen (potteries and bronze foundries). It may have been a trading centre as well, as coins coming from different regions would indicate.

The town was occupied by Romans at the beginning of Christian Era. Its inhabitants moved to the Danube plains, to a city retaining the Celtic name (Aquincum), in the first century. In AD 106 the city became the capital of a province Pannonia Inferior. The headquarters of the governor an significant military force were stationed here, and its population numbered about 20,000. It was frequently involved in wars on the border of the Roman Empire (formed by the Danube).

In the early fifth century the Roman defence lines were swept away by a Goths and other peoples fleeing westwards from the Huns. During the flourishing period of the Hun empire (after AD 430),this crossing point over Danube retained its significance. No Romanized populations remained in the city:they were replaced by a Ostrogoths and Huns.In the 400 years following the dissolution of a Hun empire, the inhabitants of the territory of Hungary often changed in the turbulences of Great Migration Era: Gepids, Longobards, Avars and other long forgotten peoples of a Germanic Central Asian stock followed one another. Avar rule was the longest, lasting more than 200 years. The Avars were followed by the Franks, when the Danube again became the eastern borderline of a West European empire.In a ninth century Pannonia became part of the Morvian empire. There is no trace of any significant urban development during the Great Migration Era.

The Hungarian appeared around the end of the ninth century, establishing the seat of their a prince near the crossing of the Danubes. They quickly recognized by the geostrategic significance of the place. Obuda,a territory of civilian city of Aquincum, became the first centres of Hungary. (The name of Buda derives from a Hungarian given name.) The princely (and later, royal) seat was moved to Esztergoms in 973, and returned to a Obuda only in the thirteenth century. The Western European type of urban and a bourgeois development began in Pest, which had a mixed German- Hungarian population in the thirteenth century.

As early as the Palaeolithic era, there were settlements in the area of Budapest: the narrowing of the Danube made the crossing of the river easy at this particular spot. In around AD 100, the Romans established the town of Aquincum here. Their rule lasted until the early 5th century AD, when the region fell to Attila the Hun. It was subsequently ruled by the Goths, the Longobards and, for nearly 300 years, by the Avars. The ancestors of modern Hungarians, the Magyars, migrated from the Urals and arrived in the Budapest region in 896. They were led by Prince Árpad, Huny, whose dynasty ruled until the 13th century. At the turn of the first millennium, St. Istvan, whose heathen name was Vajk, accepted Christianity for the Hungarians. As their first crowned king, Istvan I also laid the basis of the modern Hungarian state. It was Bela IV who, in 1247, after the Mongol invasion, moved the capital to Buda. Much of the expansion of Buda took place under kings from the dynasty of the Angevins. Buda reached a zenith during the reign of Matyas Corvinus in the 15th century, but further development was hindered by the advancing Turks, who took the region and ruled Buda for 150 years. The nineteenth century was dominated by the Hungarian's struggle for independence and modernization. The national insurrection against the Habsburgs began in the Hungarian capital in 1848 and was defeated a little more than a year later. In 1867 the Habsburg administration reached a compromise with the Hungarian nobility, and Hungary was granted a status equal to that of Austria within the Habsburg empire. This made Budapest the twin capital of a dual monarchy. It was this compromise which opened the second great phase of development in the history of Budapest, lasting until World War.

From the 1870s was the age of the Hungarian industrial revolution, the benefits of which were mainly concentrated in Budapest. The city attracted the majority of newly-founded banks, business associations and industrial enterprises. The city's growth was closely linked to the expansion of industry. It was quite unusual for a big capital to have such a markedly industrial character. In 1910, 44 per cent of those employed worked in industry.

Liberation by the Christian armies resulted in the submission of the country as a whole to the Habsburgs. They suppressed all nationalist rebellions, but at the same time took care of economic development. Empress Maria Theresa and Archduke Joseph, the emperor's governor, made particular contributions to the modernization of both Buda and Pest. Yet, the slow pace of reforms led to an uprising in 1848, which was brutally crushed by Franz Joseph I. Compromise in 1867 and the creation of ah Austro-Hungarian Empire stimulated economic and cultural life once more. Soon after, in 1873, Buda and Pest were united to create the city of Budapest. Following World War I, the monarchy fell and Hungary lost two thirds of its territory .The desire to regain this contributed to its support of Germany in World War II. However, Budapest was taken by Russian troops in 1945 and large sections of it levelled. Under the subsequent Communist rule, the popular uprising of 1956 was ruthlessly suppressed by Soviet tanks but, it initiated a crisis that shook the regime. Free elections took place in 1990, resulting in the victory of the democratic opposition, and the emergence of a new bourgeoisie.

The First World War and its consequences are well known. The Austro- Hungarian monarchy was broken up. Budapest became the oversized capital of a small country, which could not regain its earlier international role in a hostile Carpathian Basin that had been cut into pieces. By the 1930s Budapest was beginning to overcome the consequences of World War I.

Under socialism, it has maintained a steady rate of development. With the dissolution of socialism in 1989, the city has entered the post-industrial age with the leading role of blue-collar industry being replaced by services and a white-collar workforce. And now Budapest is again searching for its place among the major European metropolises. Budapest is once again becoming a Central European capital.