Gellért Hill ( hu, Gellért-hegy; german: Blocksberg; la, Mons Sancti Gerhardi tr, Gürz İlyas Bayırı) is a high hill overlooking the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population o ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...

. It is located in the

1st First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

and the 11th districts. The hill was named after Saint Gerard who was thrown to death from the hill. The famous Hotel Gellért and the Gellért Baths can be found in ''Gellért Square'' at the foot of the hill, next to Liberty Bridge. The Gellért Hill Cave is also located on the hill, facing the hotel and the

. At the top of the hill, the

Citadella The Citadella is the fortification located upon the top of Gellért Hill in Budapest, Hungary. ''Citadella'' is the Hungarian word for citadel, a kind of fortress. The word is exclusively used by other languages to refer to the Gellért Hill ...

(''English: citadel'') can be found with a nice panoramic view of the city.

Origin of the name

The first recorded names of the hill in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

were ''Kelen-hegy'', ''Pesti-hegy (English: Pest Hill)'' and ''Blocksberg''. Since the 15th century, it has been called ''Szent Gellért hegye'' (lit. ''the hill of St. Gerard''), referring to the legend about the death of St. Gerard. The bishop was assassinated by the

pagans Pagans may refer to: * Paganism, a group of pre-Christian religions practiced in the Roman Empire * Modern Paganism, a group of contemporary religious practices * Order of the Vine, a druidic faction in the ''Thief'' video game series * Pagan's M ...

during the great pagan rebellion in 1046. He was put in a barrel and rolled down into the deep from the top of the hill. The former name, Pesti-hegy ( la, Mons Pestiensis) referred to the large cave (now Gellért Hill Cave) in the hillside. The word is probably of Slavic origin and means ''oven'' or ''cave''. The

Ottoman Turks The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922). Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...

called the hill ''Gürz Elyas bayiri''. Gürz Elyas was a holy man from the

Bektashi The Bektashi Order; sq, Tarikati Bektashi; tr, Bektaşi or Bektashism is an Islamic Sufi mystic movement originating in the 13th-century. It is named after the Anatolian saint Haji Bektash Wali (d. 1271). The community is currently led by ...

order whose shrine and grave on top of the hill was a place of

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

in the 17th century.

Geology

The hill belongs to the Buda Hills but, in a narrow sense, it connects to the southern Buda range consisting also Sashegy. These hills are based on main dolomite from the

Late Triassic The Late Triassic is the third and final epoch of the Triassic Period in the geologic time scale, spanning the time between Ma and Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the Middle Triassic Epoch and followed by the Early Jurassic Epoch ...

era, although the hills themselves arose later in the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

along a

tectonic Tectonics (; ) are the processes that control the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. These include the processes of mountain building, the growth and behavior of the strong, old cores of continents ...

breakline. This explains also the origin of the

hot spring A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...

s all around the area. The

cave A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

s are the result of the breaklines and the springs. The most significant among them is the Gellért Hill Cave with the ''Sziklatemplom'' (''English: Cave Church'')''.''

History

After the assassination of St. Gerard, the hill was not populated. The dense forest and rocks gave way to legends of

witches Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have us ...

holding their ceremonies on the hill. From the 18th century the hillsides were covered with

vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyard ...

s. The Tabán district at the foot of the hill was an important centre of

winemaking Winemaking or vinification is the production of wine, starting with the selection of the fruit, its fermentation into alcohol, and the bottling of the finished liquid. The history of wine-making stretches over millennia. The science of wine and ...

Buda Buda (; german: Ofen, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Budim, Будим, Czech and sk, Budín, tr, Budin) was the historic capital of the Kingdom of Hungary and since 1873 has been the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest, on the ...

. According to the 1789

land register Land registration is any of various systems by which matters concerning ownership, possession, or other rights in land are formally recorded (usually with a government agency or department) to provide evidence of title, facilitate transactions, ...

vineyards covered 128

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100- metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre i ...

s (316 ac) on the hill (only 7.62 hectares or 18.8 ac were used as pastures). A small

calvary Calvary ( la, Calvariae or ) or Golgotha ( grc-gre, Γολγοθᾶ, ''Golgothâ'') was a site immediately outside Jerusalem's walls where Jesus was said to have been crucified according to the canonical Gospels. Since at least the early medie ...

was built on the top of the hill which was rebuilt around 1820. On

Easter Monday Easter Monday refers to the day after Easter Sunday in either the Eastern or Western Christian traditions. It is a public holiday in some countries. It is the second day of Eastertide. In Western Christianity, it marks the second day of the ...

s a procession climbed the steep road leading to the calvary to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. Many tents and

vendor In a supply chain, a vendor, supplier, provider or a seller, is an enterprise that contributes goods or services. Generally, a supply chain vendor manufactures inventory/stock items and sells them to the next link in the chain. Today, these terms ...

s were erected on the nearby meadow. ''Emmausjárás'' (En: ''Emmaus-walk'') or ''tojásbúcsú'' (En: Egg Feast) was one of the most popular Catholic holidays of the year during the 18th–19th centuries. The

was built after the 1848–49 Hungarian uprising by the ruling

Habsburg The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...

s, as it was a prime, strategic site for shelling both

and Pest in the event of a future revolt. Gellért Hill also saw action in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

and the

1956 Hungarian Revolution The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hung ...

, when Soviet tanks fired down into the city from the hill. Indeed, battle scars still pockmark some buildings in Budapest. There is a small military museum in the Citadella’s grounds. At the end of the Citadella is the '' Liberty Statue'' (''Szabadság Szobor'' in Hungarian), a large monument erected by the Soviet Red Army to commemorate their victory in World War II.

Today

Now an affluent residential area, a number of embassies and ambassadorial residences line the streets that wind up the hill. Since 1987, the area has been a UNESCO

World Heritage site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

as part of "the Banks of the Danube". A large proportion of the hill consists of

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are green spaces set aside for recreation inside towns and cities. ...

land. Bats and

hedgehog A hedgehog is a spiny mammal of the subfamily Erinaceinae, in the eulipotyphlan family Erinaceidae. There are seventeen species of hedgehog in five genera found throughout parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in New Zealand by introductio ...

s are commonly observed on summer nights. In January 2007, a new cave was discovered under Gellért Hill during private construction. The cave is 60 m long and 18 m deep with three rooms. The interior is covered with dazzling white crystals composed of

gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard or sidewalk chalk, and drywa ...

calcite Calcite is a carbonate mineral and the most stable polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It is a very common mineral, particularly as a component of limestone. Calcite defines hardness 3 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, based on scratc ...

, and

aragonite Aragonite is a carbonate mineral, one of the three most common naturally occurring crystal forms of calcium carbonate, (the other forms being the minerals calcite and vaterite). It is formed by biological and physical processes, including pre ...

. The cave was created 300,000–500,000 years ago by a now disappeared thermal spring. The crystal cave was immediately placed under legal protection.

Gallery

File:Gellért Hill from Tűzkő Hill, 2017 Budaörs.jpg, Gellért Hill from Tűzkő Hill File:View toward Gellért hill from József-hegy lookout, 2016 Budapest.jpg, View toward Gellért hill from József-hegy lookout tower File:Kilátás a Gellért-hegyről.jpg, View from the hill I. File:Kilátás a Gellért-hegyről a János-hegyre.jpg, View from the hill II. File:Nature on Gellért Hill.jpg, Nature on Gellért Hill File:Díszkert a Gellért-hegyen.jpg, Bloom garden on the top of the hill

Notes

External links

Gellérthegy a Vendégvárón

www.Gellerthegy.hu (Budapesti XI district homepage)

Google

Panoramic Virtual Tour
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gellert Hill Újbuda Buda Hills Neighbourhoods of Budapest