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 ...

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

. 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 ...

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

was built after the 1848–49 Hungarian uprising by the ruling Habsburgs, 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 (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

Notes

External links

Gellérthegy a Vendégvárón

www.Gellerthegy.hu (Budapesti XI district homepage)

Google

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