A Hungarian Bridge
According to French Taste
Budapest, the Hungarian capital, is a real “building porn” from a tourist’s point of view. The history of Central and Eastern Europe swept through the city, leaving deep, honest traces on the facades of the buildings, the fabric of the town, and human destinies. Today’s city was born from the merger of three smaller settlements 150 years ago. The construction of the second Danube bridge, the Margit, began before the city unification.
Right and left banks of the Danube
Near Budapest, the left bank of the Danube, the Pest side, is essentially flat, while Buda, on the right bank, is mountainous and hilly. There are smaller hills and rises on the Pest side, but we perceive them less. The difference between the two sides is immediately apparent from one of the Danube bridges. This makes Budapest exciting and diverse. The historical development of the two banks of the Danube with different faces was also further. Pest on the left bank was an industrial and trading settlement throughout the Middle and Modern Ages.
In contrast, Buda, on the right bank, was a fortified royal seat and a strategically important city. Óbuda, located north of Buda, was more of an agricultural settlement. All three districts have distinct atmospheres, as these three cities lived independent, separate lives until 1872.
According to French taste
The construction of bridges is practically as old as humankind. It connects two places, in this case, let’s say a river, the two banks of the Danube. In the second half of the 1800s, only one bridge connected Buda and Pest, the Chain Bridge. After a while, however, with the increase in goods and passenger traffic, this proved insufficient, so in 1870, the Parliament ordered the construction of a second bridge. Forty-three entries were received for the tender. Work began in 1872 under the direction of the winner, the Frenchman Ernest Goüin. Ernest Goüin (or Gouin, in Hungarian: Gouin Ernő, Tours, July 22, 1815 — Paris, Île-de-France, March 24, 1885) was a French engineer and bridge designer, one of the 72 scientists whose names are on the Eiffel Tower on the four facades of the tower.
The name is Margaret
The bridge was opened to the public in 1876. Margaret Bridge. Its name was suggested by the writer Pál Gyulai about the name of IV. Béla’s daughter, Margaret. However, there were some complications in the case. In one of the August 1875 issues of Fővárosi Lapok, we can read the following:
“The papers are talking about St. Margaret’s Bridge, claiming that the word “saint” also appears in the proposal for the academy’s inscription. If this is true — writes one of our colleagues — it is fearful that the Holy Father, who claims the exclusive right of canonization for himself, is warning against title usurpation. There is a martyr Margit, but we Hungarians have nothing to do with that. ARC. And the dear daughter of our king Béla, after whom the beautiful island and the new bridge get the name, is not yet listed among the saints but only among the blessed (beta) in the register of the Roman popes. Her legend also mentions Margit as a virgin.”
There were no problems at the handover, Margit remained, and the adjectives “saint” and “virgin” were left behind from the bridge’s name.
Wing bridge
The Margaret Bridge and the wing bridge connecting the bridge to the island are of different ages. The bridge runs perpendicular to both branches of the Danube at the southern tip of Margit Island. Thus the bridge part meets on Margaret Island, forming an angle of 150 degrees, thus facilitating the construction of the small bridge leading to Margaret Island. This small bridge was completed in 1899–1900 and opened for traffic on August 19, 1900.
The bridge was widened between 1935–37. Towards the end of the Second World War, it was mined by the Germans, and on November 4, 1944, it accidentally exploded. More than a hundred people lost their lives in the disaster. At that time, the three openings close to the Pest side fell into the Danube with the pedestrians, cars, and trams traveling on the bridge. On January 18, 1945, the retreating German troops deliberately blew up the remaining parts of Buda.
After the war, it was handed over in an enlarged form between 1946–48, and since then, thanks to continuous renovations at certain intervals, we can still admire its beauty today.
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