Gellért Hill (; ; ) is a high hill overlooking the
Danube
The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...
in
Budapest
Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...
,
Hungary
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much 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 south, Croatia and ...
. It is located in the
1st 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
Danube
The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...
.
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 language, Hungarian word for citadel, a kind of Fortification, fortress. The word is exclusively used by other lan ...
(''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 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
were ''Kelen-hegy'', ''Pesti-hegy (English: Pest Hill)'' and ''Blocksberg''. Since the 15th century, it has been called (lit. ''the hill of St. Gerard''), in reference to the legend of the death of
St. Gerard (),
Bishop of Csanád. The bishop was assassinated by the
pagans during the
great pagan rebellion in 1046. He was allegedly put in a barrel and rolled down from the top of the hill.
The former name, Pesti-hegy () 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 () were a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group in Anatolia. Originally from Central Asia, they migrated to Anatolia in the 13th century and founded the Ottoman Empire, in which they remained socio-politically dominant for the e ...
called the hill ''Gürz Elyas bayiri''.
Gürz Elyas was a holy man from the
Bektashi
Bektashism (, ) is a tariqa, Sufi order of Islam that evolved in 13th-century western Anatolia and became widespread in the Ottoman Empire. It is named after the wali, ''walī'' "saint" Haji Bektash Veli, with adherents called Bektashis. The ...
order whose shrine and grave on top of the hill was a place of
pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a travel, journey to a holy place, which can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life. A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) w ...
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 (geology), epoch of the Triassic geologic time scale, Period in the geologic time scale, spanning the time between annum, Ma and Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the Middle Triassic Epoch a ...
epoch, although the hills themselves arose later in the
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...
along a
tectonic
Tectonics ( via Latin ) are the processes that result in the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. The field of ''planetary tectonics'' extends the concept to other planets and moons.
These processes ...
breakline. This explains also the origin of the
hot spring
A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a Spring (hydrology), spring produced by the emergence of Geothermal activity, geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow ...
s all around the area. The
cave
Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's Planetary surface, surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance undergrou ...
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 holding their ceremonies on the hill.
From the 18th century the hillsides were covered with
vineyard
A vineyard ( , ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines. Many vineyards exist for winemaking; others for the production of raisins, table grapes, and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is kno ...
s. The
Tabán district at the foot of the hill was an important centre of
winemaking
Winemaking, wine-making, or vinification is the production of wine, starting with the selection of the fruit, its Ethanol fermentation, fermentation into alcohol, and the bottling of the finished liquid. The history of wine-making stretches over ...
in
Buda
Buda (, ) is the part of Budapest, the capital city of Hungary, that lies on the western bank of the Danube. Historically, “Buda” referred only to the royal walled city on Castle Hill (), which was constructed by Béla IV between 1247 and ...
. According to the 1789
land register 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), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...
s (316 ac) on the hill (only 7.62 hectares or 18.8 ac were used as pastures).
A small
calvary was built on the top of the hill which was rebuilt around 1820. On
Easter Mondays a procession climbed the steep road leading to the calvary to celebrate the
resurrection of Christ
The resurrection of Jesus () is Christian belief that God raised Jesus from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion, starting—or restoring—his exalted life as Christ and Lord. According to the New Testament writing, Jesus w ...
. 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 term ...
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
Citadella
The Citadella () is the fortification located upon the top of Gellért Hill in Budapest, Hungary. ''Citadella'' is the Hungarian language, Hungarian word for citadel, a kind of Fortification, fortress. The word is exclusively used by other lan ...
was built after the
1848–49 Hungarian uprising by the ruling
Habsburgs, as it was a prime, strategic site for shelling both
Buda
Buda (, ) is the part of Budapest, the capital city of Hungary, that lies on the western bank of the Danube. Historically, “Buda” referred only to the royal walled city on Castle Hill (), which was constructed by Béla IV between 1247 and ...
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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
and the
1956 Hungarian Revolution, 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
World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...
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 urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...
land.
Bats and
hedgehogs are commonly observed on summer nights.
In January 2007, a new cave was discovered under Gellért Hill during private construction. The cave is with three rooms. The interior is covered with white crystals composed of
gypsum,
calcite
Calcite is a Carbonate minerals, carbonate mineral and the most stable Polymorphism (materials science), polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It is a very common mineral, particularly as a component of limestone. Calcite defines hardness 3 on ...
, and
aragonite
Aragonite is a carbonate mineral and one of the three most common naturally occurring crystal forms of calcium carbonate (), the others being calcite and vaterite. It is formed by biological and physical processes, including precipitation fr ...
. 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
See also
*
Naphegy
*
Tabán
*
Gellért Hill Calvary
Notes
External links
Gellérthegy a Vendégvárónwww.Gellerthegy.hu (Budapesti XI district homepage)GooglePanoramic Virtual Tour
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gellert Hill
Várkerület
Újbuda
Buda Hills
Hills of Hungary
Neighbourhoods of Budapest