Újlipótváros ("New Leopold Town") is a neighborhood in the 13th

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

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 ...

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

. It is located north to

Lipótváros Lipótváros (, ) is a traditional neighbourhood in the city centre of Budapest, named after King Leopold II. It is one of the two neighbourhoods of District V, the other one being Inner City (Belváros), which is the old town of Pest. Lipótv ...

("Leopold Town") neighbourhood of the 5th District, with the Szent István Boulevard (''Szent István körút'') separating it from its southern neighbor,

. It lies east of the river

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 , p ...

, west of

Terézváros Terézváros (English: Theresa Town, German: Theresienstadt) is the District VI of Budapest, and was named after Queen Maria Theresa in 1777, who visited the neighbourhood 26 years earlier in 1751. The territory was first inhabited in the early 1 ...

, and south of Vizafogó. Unlike most other neighborhoods in the 13th district, Újlipótváros is considered part of the Budapest city center.

History

Previously an industrial area, it was rebuilt as a residential district from the late 1920s. Almost all of the

building A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory (although there's also portable buildings). Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and fu ...

s were built between 1927 and 1944. This makes Újlipótváros quite different from the other parts of the

inner city The term ''inner city'' has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in a downtown or city centre area. Sociologists some ...

, which were mainly built before

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 ...

, mostly in the last three decades of the nineteenth century. The very first buildings of Újlipótváros (the so-called "Palatinus houses") are notable exceptions, these were built in 1910–1911, and represent an interesting mixture of art nouveau and other contemporary styles
1
It has been a popular middle-class/

intellectual An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator or a ...

residential district ever since it was built. Between the wars it was especially popular among middle-class citizens of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

origin and this is partially true even today, according to recent

sociological Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation and ...

research
2
The area closest to the river Danube is the most expensive, spacious and pleasant, especially the buildings around Szent István park, which is located on the riverside. Some of these buildings (especially the so-called "Dunapark houses") are regarded by many as one of the best examples of

modernist architecture Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that form ...

in Hungary.

Bauhaus in Budapest

The style of the district is often described as "

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 20 ...

", though this is not precise (the inner parts of the district are very densely built-up, and this was sharply criticized by Bauhaus architects in the thirties as pseudo-modernist architecture, with buildings featuring modernist-like facades, but bad structure), it is true that in this district one can find perhaps the best display of modern Hungarian architecture. Some of the building stock and the infrastructure has been renovated in the last fifteen years, including Szent István park. The district has quite serious problems with parking and over-crowdedness, especially in the narrower streets of its inner parts. Its main street is ''Pozsonyi út'', a

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

-lined street close to the

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...

with a lot of

restaurants A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...

bookstores Bookselling is the commercial trading of books which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process. People who engage in bookselling are called booksellers, bookdealers, bookpeople, bookmen, or bookwomen. The founding of librari ...

and shops.

History

Bauhaus in Budapest

See also