Kiskörút or Small Boulevard (lit. "Small

Ring Road A ring road (also known as circular road, beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop, bypass or orbital) is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city, or country. The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist i ...

") is a major thoroughfare in

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 ...

. It forms an incomplete semicircle between Deák Square and Fővám Square. It is the border of the southern part of District 5 (cf. Belváros), the innermost district of

Pest Pest or The Pest may refer to: Science and medicine * Pest (organism), an animal or plant deemed to be detrimental to humans or human concerns ** Weed, a plant considered undesirable * Infectious disease, an illness resulting from an infection ** ...

. As opposed to

Nagykörút Nagykörút or Grand Boulevard (sometimes ''Great Boulevard'', lit. "Big Ring Road") is one of the most central and busiest parts of Budapest, a major thoroughfare built by 1896, Hungary's Millennium. It forms a semicircle connecting two bridge ...

, it only touches 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 ...

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 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 tér in the north, it crosses Astoria and

Kálvin tér Kálvin tér (English: Calvin Square) is a major square and intersection in the city center of Budapest, the capital of Hungary. It was named after the French Protestant Reformer John Calvin (''Kálvin János'' in Hungarian) due to the large R ...

, both basic points of reference for the locals, and it ends up at Fővám tér, a square next to Liberty Bridge. Among the major roads, it crosses Rákóczi út at Astoria and Üllői út at Kálvin tér. Deák tér is the meeting point of the three existing metro lines, and Metro 2 and 3 both have a further station as well at Astoria and Kálvin tér. The new Metro 4 has stations at Fővám tér and Kálvin tér.

History

Vámház körút (literally "Customs House Boulevard") began with a German name, ''Fleischhacker Gass'', in the 1780s, which was Magyarized to ''Mészáros utcá'' ("Butcher's Street") in the 19th century. When the Budapest's central customs house was built (at what is now Fővám tér) in 1875, the road's name was changed accordingly. 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 Ferdinand I of Bulgaria. Its name was restored to Vámház körút in 1919, but the street was renamed again, taking the name of

István Horthy Vitéz István Horthy de Nagybánya (9 December 1904 – 20 August 1942) was Hungarian regent Admiral Miklós Horthy's eldest son, a politician, and, during World War II, a fighter pilot. Biography In his youth, István Horthy and his young ...

after his death in 1942. In 1945, the street took the name of Soviet military commander Fyodor Tolbukhin until after the

system change A system is a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its environment, is described by its boundaries, structure and purpose and expressed ...

. Between 1915 and 1918, Múzeum körút was renamed to honour Hungary's

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

ally, Ottoman Sultan

Mehmed V Mehmed V Reşâd ( ota, محمد خامس, Meḥmed-i ḫâmis; tr, V. Mehmed or ; 2 November 1844 – 3 July 1918) reigned as the 35th and penultimate Ottoman Sultan (). He was the son of Sultan Abdulmejid I. He succeeded his half-brother ...

. 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

Hungarian_National_Museum_at_the_Múzeum_körút

The main sights of Kiskörút are the Dohány Street Synagogue (

Romantic Romantic may refer to: Genres and eras * The Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries ** Romantic music, of that era ** Romantic poetry, of that era ** Romanticism in science, of that e ...

, 1859), the second largest such building in the world (after the one in New York) with the Jewish Museum and the Holocaust Memorial, the Hungarian National Museum ( Classicistic, 1847), and the Grand Market Hall (''Nagyvásárcsarnok'', Neo-gothic, 1896). The Synagogue can be found in a recess near Astoria. There are two major universities along Kiskörút: the Arts Faculty of

Eötvös Loránd University Eötvös Loránd University ( hu, Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem, ELTE) is a Hungarian public research university based in Budapest. Founded in 1635, ELTE is one of the largest and most prestigious public higher education institutions in Hung ...

(1883), and the former University of Economics, today Corvinus University of Budapest (

Neo-Renaissance Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...

, 1874). Along Kiskörút, remnants of the old City Wall can still be seen (e.g. at Ferenczy István utca corner), although most are already hidden in the courtyards of residential buildings.

External links

Photos: the Small Boulevard before and after the renovation
(Origó, September 13, 2011)

(stored by the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...