Grand Boulevard (Budapest)
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Blaha Lujza tér | |
| South end | Petőfi Bridge |
|---|---|
Nagykörút, also Grand
Meaning
Nagykörút is actually a colloquial name of its five parts which connect to each other: (from north to south) Szent István körút, Teréz körút, Erzsébet körút, József körút and Ferenc körút; these are the names the traveller will find on the map and the buildings. They are named after the districts of Budapest, which they pass through: VI. Terézváros, VII. Erzsébetváros, VIII. Józsefváros, IX. Ferencváros. The only exception is Szent István körút, which is the border of Lipótváros (northern half of District V.) and Újlipótváros (southern part of District XIII.). However, its original name was Lipót körút, but the district had been renamed to Szentistvánváros in 1937, also the boulevard became Szent István. Most of citizens did not support renaming, so the district got back its original name after World War II, but not the boulevard. Nagykörút is usually meant to include its Pest part (i.e., the east side of the Danube), but it might be applied to its extension on the Buda side as well (in this latter sense, Margit körút will be its sixth part).
Location
It consists of a 35- to 40-metre-wide, about 4.5-kilometre-long road (not counting the bridge and the Buda side) with a tram line in the middle. It crosses a few major squares such as
Features, notable spots
On the Nagykörút one can find (from north to south) the
Transport
Metros
The
4 and 6 trams
A characteristic vehicle of the Grand Boulevard is the tram no. 4 and 6, reaching Buda both in north (Széll Kálmán tér) and south Újbuda-központ (line 4) and Móricz Zsigmond körtér (line 6). The line dates back to 1887 and it has since extended to 8.5 km in length and 21 stations to become the busiest tram line of Europe, carrying 200,000 travellers a day. (The routes of tram lines 4 and 6 differ only in their last two stops in the south.[3])
Its trams (no. 4 and 6), a unique type in Budapest, have been replaced by low-floor
Further ring roads in Budapest
There are three further ring roads in Budapest:
- the Small Boulevard (Kiskörút), with the length of about 1.5 km, inside the semicircle of Nagykörút (including Károly körút, Múzeum körút and Vámház körút),
- the Hungária körgyűrű, an even bigger ring road outside Nagykörút (approx. 13 km), which is not always thought of as a single entity (it includes Róbert Károly körút, Hungária körút and Könyves Kálmán körút).
- the M0 motorway, which encircles the three-quarters of the metropolitan area, connecting motorways M1, M7, M6, M5, M4 and M3.
References
- ^ Ildi Amon (26 September 2014). "Discover secret sights along Budapest's Grand Boulevard". We Love Budapest.
- ^ "Budapest Tries to Sell Hungarians on Capitalism". The New York Times. 6 May 1993. p. A-13.
- ^ Cf. line 4 and line 6
- ^ "Forgalomba állt az új 4-6-os villamos". Index.hu. 1 July 2006. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
- ^ "Húsvét után jön a nagykörúti káosz". Index.hu. 17 April 2006. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
External links
- The Budapest Tourism Office on the Grand Boulevard (stored by the Internet Archive)
- Szent István körút (a part of the Grand Boulevard)
- Photos of the introduction of the new tram carriage
47°29′59″N 19°04′10″E / 47.49972°N 19.06944°E
