Kiskörút or Small

Boulevard A boulevard is a type of broad avenue planted with rows of trees, or in parts of North America, any urban highway or wide road in a commercial district. In Europe, boulevards were originally circumferential roads following the line of former ...

(lit. "Small

Ring Road A ring road (also known as circular road, beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop 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 in reducin ...

") is a major thoroughfare 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 ...

. 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. As opposed to

Nagykörút Nagykörút, also Grand Boulevard or Great Boulevard (also called "Big ring road, Ring Road", "Grand Ring Road", "Great Ring Road"), is one of the most central and busiest parts of Budapest, a major thoroughfare built by 1896, Hungary's Mi ...

, it only touches 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 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 Ferenc 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 Protestantism, Protestant Reformer John Calvin (''Kálvin János'' in Hungarian langu ...

, 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 Ferenc 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 newer 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 utca'' ("Butcher's Street") in the 19th century. When the Budapest's central

customs house A custom house or customs house was traditionally a building housing the offices for a jurisdictional government whose officials oversaw the functions associated with importing and exporting goods into and out of a country, such as collecting ...

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 The Hungarian National Museum (, ) was founded in 1802 and is the national museum for the history, art, and archaeology of Hungary, including areas not within Hungary's modern borders, such as Transylvania; it is separate to the collection of int ...

, which opened in 1847, and Károly körút was named in honour of

Charles IV of Hungary Charles I (, ; 17 August 1887 – 1 April 1922) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary (as Charles IV), and the ruler of the other states of the Habsburg monarchy from November 1916 until the monarchy was abolished in November 1918. He was the ...

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 Ferdinand I (Ferdinand Maximilian Karl Leopold Maria; 26 February 1861 – 10 September 1948) was Prince of Bulgaria from 1887 to 1908 and Tsar of Bulgaria from 1908 until his abdication in 1918. Under his rule, Bulgaria entered the First Worl ...

. Its name was restored to Vámház körút in 1919, but the street was renamed again, taking the name of

István Horthy István Horthy de Nagybánya (9 December 1904 – 20 August 1942) was a Hungarian politician and fighter pilot during World War II. He was briefly Vice-Regent of Hungary in 1942, and was the eldest son of Hungarian regent Miklós Horthy. Biog ...

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

Fyodor Tolbukhin Fyodor Ivanovich Tolbukhin (; 16 June 1894 – 17 October 1949) was a Soviet Union, Soviet military commander and Marshal of the Soviet Union. He is regarded as one of the finest Soviet generals of World War II. Born into a peasant family i ...

until after the system change. Between 1915 and 1918, Múzeum körút was renamed to honour Hungary's

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

ally, Ottoman Sultan

Mehmed V Mehmed V Reşâd (; or ; 2 November 1844 – 3 July 1918) was the penultimate List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire, sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1909 to 1918. Mehmed V reigned as a Constitutional monarchy, constitutional monarch. He had ...

. 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 Béla may refer to: * Béla (crater), an elongated lunar crater * Béla (given name), a common Hungarian male given name See also * Bela (disambiguation) * Belá (disambiguation) * Bělá (disambiguation) Bělá may refer to: Places in the Cze ...

Népszava ''Népszava'' (, meaning "People's Voice" in English) is a social-democratic Hungarian language newspaper published in Hungary. History and profile ''Népszava'' is Hungary's eldest continuous print publication and as of October 2019 the last ...

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

The main sights of Kiskörút are the

Dohány Street Synagogue The Dohány Street Synagogue ( ; ; ), also known as the Great Synagogue () or Tabakgasse Synagogue (), is a Neolog Judaism, Neolog Judaism, Jewish congregation and synagogue, located on Dohány utca, Dohány Street in Erzsébetváros (VIIth dis ...

( Romantic, 1859), the second largest such building in the world (after the one in New York) with the Jewish Museum and the Holocaust Memorial, the

( Classicistic, 1847), and the Grand Market Hall (''Nagyvásárcsarnok'',

Neo-gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

, 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 (, ELTE, also known as ''University of Budapest'') 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 ...

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

Corvinus University of Budapest Corvinus University of Budapest () is a private university, private research university in Budapest, Hungary. The university currently has an enrolment of approximately 9,600 students, with a primary focus on business administration, economics, ...

(

Neo-Renaissance Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century Revivalism (architecture), architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival architecture, Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival ar ...

, 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 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

)
Small Boulevard
{{Budapest Boulevards in Budapest Urban planning in Hungary