Small Boulevard (Budapest)
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Kiskörút or Small at its southern end.
Meaning
Kiskörút is actually a colloquial name for three parts which connect to each other: (from north to south) Károly körút, Múzeum körút, and Vámház körút; these are the names a traveller will find on the map and the buildings.
Location
It consists of a 1.5-kilometre-long (0.93 mi) road with a tram line in the middle. Its width is around 55 m in the north and it narrows down to 27 m in the south. Its starting point is Deák Ferenc tér in the north, it crosses
History
Vámház körút (literally "Customs House Boulevard") began with a German name, Fleischhacker Gass, in the 1780s, which was
From the 18th century, the sections of road known today as Múzeum körút and Károly körút were (together with today's Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út) known by a single German name Land Strasse later translated as Országút. In 1874, Budapest's Public Works Council decided to divide that road, creating the Kiskörút in three sections. The Múzeum körút was named for the Hungarian National Museum, which opened in 1847, and Károly körút was named in honour of Charles IV of Hungary and the barracks that bore his name alongside the road. From that point on, Vámház körút was also considered part of the same boulevard, and Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út was split off.
20th-century name changes
In 1915, Vámház körút was renamed to Ferdinánd körút in honour of
Between 1915 and 1918, Múzeum körút was renamed to honour Hungary's World War I ally, Ottoman Sultan Mehmed V.
In 1918, Károly körút was briefly renamed Népakarat körút ("People's Will Boulevard"), then Népkörút ("People's Boulevard") before its name was restored in 1926. In 1945, it was renamed to honour Béla Somogyi (a Népszava editor murdered during the White Terror in 1920) and in 1953, it was further renamed Tanács körút ("Council Boulevard"). Its name was again restored in 1991.
Features, notable spots
The main sights of Kiskörút are the
There are two major universities along Kiskörút: the Arts Faculty of
See also
- Grand Boulevard
- Belváros
External links
- Photos: the Small Boulevard before and after the renovation (Origó, September 13, 2011)
- The Budapest Tourism Office on the Small Boulevard (stored by the Internet Archive)
- Small Boulevard
47°29′28″N 19°03′46″E / 47.4911°N 19.0628°E
