Fine Arts in Hungary
English-Hungarian & Hungarian-English Dictionary
Hungarian Electronic Library
Coins and Banknotes in Hungary
(At the time of this post 1 € worthed ~270-275 HUF)
Monday 27 July 2009
Hungarian gastronomy
Hungarian cuisine
Maybe you have already heard of delights of Hungarian cuisine. The traditional Hungarian dishes abound in piquant flavors and aromas. Dishes are flavourful, spicy and often rather heavy. People with a sensitive stomach, should be careful.
Flavours of Hungarian dishes are based on centuries old traditions in spicing and preparation methods. The exquisite ingredients are produced by local agriculture and husbandry.
Paprika and garlic is to be found everywhere. In the autumn, a fascinating view is the strings of red paprika (unground red pepper) hung on the white walls of the houses in the neighbourhood of Kalocsa, a town along the Danube.
Some savoury courses to tickle your palate
(recipes also)
Meat, Poultry, Game (Hús-, Szárnyas- és Vadételek)
Geography
Click on the left or right side of the above picture to get a bigger one of that part! (~180 kbyte!)
About Hungary's geography
Hungary occupies the low-lying areas of the Carpathian basin. Two-thirds of the territory consist of plains below 200 metres.
Some data
Area: 93,030 square km, 1% of the area of Europe- Location:
- Northern latitude 45 48' - 48 35'
- Eastern longitude 16 05' - 22 58'
- State border length: 2,242 km
- of which
- the Ukraine 215 km
- Romania 432 km
- former Yugoslavia 631 km
- Austria 356 km
- Slovakia 608 km
- Height above sea level:
- under 200 m 84%
- 200-400 m 14%
- above 400 m 2%
- Longest rivers:
- Danube - Hungarian stretch 417 km (full length 2,860 km)
- (tributaries: Raba, Drava, Sio, Ipoly)
- Tisza - Hungarian stretch 598 km (full length 962 km)
- (tributaries: Szamos, Kraszna, the Koros rivers, Maros, Hernad, Sajo, Berettyo)
- Largest lakes:
- Balaton 598 square km surface area
- Velence lake 26 square km surface area
- Ferto lake 322 square km surface area (Hungarian part 82 square km)
Hungarian history
Important dates of Hungarian history
- 5th century
- The Hungarian tribes left the area of the Urals. They passed along the Volga and the Caspian Sea. After several hundred years of wandering, they reached the Carpathian Basin.
- 896
- Under the leadership of Árpád, the Hungarian tribes settled in the Carpathian Basin. They drove out part of the residents and absorbed the other part.
- 997-1038
- King Stephen of the Árpád dynasty ruled the country.
- 1000
- Stephen was converted to Christianity. After his death, he was canonized.
- 1055
- An abbey was set up at Tihany. The foundation charter was drawn up on the northern shore of Lake Balaton. This is the earliest written record extant in the Hungarian language.
- 1241
- The Mongolian Tatars devastated the country. Their presence, which lasted a year, halted development for at least a century. After the warfare with the Hungarians, the Tatars did not continue towards the west.
- 1458-1490
- The rule of King Matthias. Cultural life of a European standard flourished in his palaces at Buda and Visegrád. For a few decades, Hungary lived on a West European standard.
- 1526
- At Mohács, the present southern frontier of the country, the Turks defeated the Hungarian army. 150 years of Turkish occupation started.
- 1541
- The Turks occupied Buda. Hungary was split into three parts. The Habsburg governed the western part of the country, the central area was ruled by the Turks, and the south-east Transylvanian principality (today part of Roumania) for a long time was the citadel of Hungarian culture.
- 1686
- Buda was recaptured from the Turks. (The Turks - similarly to the Tartars - could only advance in Europe to the territory of Hungary. Here they were faced by obstacles, after which no strength was left for the siege of Vienna.)
- 1703-1711
- A freedom war under the leadership of Ferenc Rákóczi II, Prince of Transylvania, against the Habsburgs. The rebels defeated the Imperial army in several battles, but did not receive the promised French support and failed.
- First half of the 19th century
- A national reform movement was launched for the political and economic transformation of the country, for Hungarian language and culture. This was when the National Anthem was born, and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences was set up. The building of the Chain Bridge started. The initiator of these was Count István Széchenyi, an eminent figure of the Reform Age.
- 1848-1849
- A revolution broke out in Pest, which extendedover the entire country. The Habsburg Emperor was dethroned after the Hungarian army won several significant battles. Lajos Kossuth was elected Governor. The longest European national revolution could only be oppressed in the summer of 1849 by the Habsburgs with the help of the Russian army.
- 1867
- The Hungarians concluded a compromise with the Habsburgs. A double-centred monarchy was set up with seats in Vienna and Pest-Buda. A spectacular industrial upswing started.
- 1873
- Pest, Buda and Obuda were unified: Budapest became a European metropolis. The buildings of that time - the Opera House, the National Gallery and Parliament - still determine the skyline of the city. The first subsurface underground railway on continental Europe was put into operation.
- 1918
- Germany and its allies, including the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, lost the world war. The monarchy disintegrated.
- 1920
- The Trianon Treaty reduced Hungary's area by two thirds and the population by one third. Since then, considerable Hungarian minorities lived in the neighbouring countries.
- 1938-1940
- Germany concluded treaties in Munich and Vienna, according to which Southern Slovakia and Northern Transylvania were returned to Hungary.
- 1944
- The Nazis occupied Hungary, as they did not consider it a reliable ally. During the Second World War, the Hungarians suffered grave losses on the Soviet front. At the end of the war, Fascists took over the governing of the country.
- 1945
- The Soviet Army liberated, then occupied Hungary. At the hastly held elections, the Communists gained only 17 percent of the votes.
- 1947
- The last, relatively free election was followed by the years of Communist control: show trials, executions, forced settlement of hundreds of thousands, imprisonment, harassment, forced industrial development, a drop in living standards, and Stalinist dictatorship.
- 1956
- A revolution against Stalinism. The uprising was defeated by Soviet troops. János Kádár, who acquired power with their assistance, promised democratic socialism; in the meantime, retaliation and executions started.
- 1965
- The new system became consolidated, and cautious economic reforms were launched. Living standards were rising and the iron curtain became penetrable.
- 1988
- The Hungarian transition period began.
- 1990
- The Communist party voluntarily gave up its autocracy. A multi-party parliamentary democracy came into being in the country. The Soviet army left Hungary.
- 1999
- Hungary became full member of NATO.
- 2004
- Hungary becomes member of the European Union.
Facts about Hungary
Facts about Hungary
Name: Hungarian Republic
Location: East-Central Europe (borders with Austria, Slovakia, Ukraina, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia)
Area: ~93,030 square km
Population: 10,300,000 (21 percent under 14 and 60 percent between 15-59)
Density of population: 110 (per square km)
Form of government: Republic (parliamentary democracy - 4 year election periods)
Capital: Budapest (2 million inhabitants)
Number of counties: 19
Number of towns: 169
Number of villages: 2,904
Climate: Continental with Mediterranean and Atlantic influences
Average temperatures: January -2C (28F), July 23C (73F)
Language: Hungarian (a very special language, originating from the Finnougric tribe of languages)
Currency: Hungarian Forint - HUF (1 USD = 176.25 HUF / 29.March.1997)
Religion: Roman Catholic (majority), Protestant, Jewish
Urban population ratio: 60 percent
Population increment: -0.1 percent (decreasing!)
Life expectancy: men 66, women 74 (decreasing!!!)
Local time: in the winter GMT+1 hour, in the summer GMT+2 hours (same as in West Europe)
Public holidays: January 1, March 15, May 1, August 20, October 23, December 25, 26
International country phone code: 36
Number of Internet hosts: ~49,000 (September, 1997)
Hungarians in the World (in thousands)
Czech and Slovakia | ~700 |
the former Yugoslavia | ~650 |
Romania | ~2,000 |
the former Soviet Union | ~200 |
Austria | ~70 |
Belgium | ~10 |
France | ~35 |
Holland | ~5 |
Great Britain | ~10 |
Italy | ~10 |
Germany | ~50 |
Switzerland | ~10 |
Sweden | ~16 |
Other West European countries | ~10 |
| |
United States | ~730 |
Canada | ~140 |
Argentina | ~10 |
Brazil | ~70 |
Uruguay | ~5 |
Other South American countries | ~10 |
South African Republic | ~5 |
Australia | ~55 |
Israel | ~220 |
| ------- |
| ~5,000 |
Hungarian stereotypes
Do extra-terrestrial beings exist? - the Nobel Prize winning Italian physicist, Enrico Fermi, was once asked by his disciples in California. Of course, Fermi answered - they are already here among us, they are called Hungarians...
You are welcome here, in the homeland of the extra-terrestrial beings. Why did Fermi think this about us? Because Hollywood's dream factories were partly built by Hungarian producers, directors, writers and cameramen? Or because - as the saying goes - Hungarians were created by God to sit on horseback? Perhaps because Bela Bartok's music in his own time was considered extra-terrestrial by many? Or because of the Hungarian language, which does not resemble any world language and sounds so strange?
So, who are these Hungarians? It is not (yet) known quite precisely. It seems certain they arrived somewhere from Asia. Their nearest kinship is with distant "small" peoples. With regard to Hungary's location, world languages generally define it as: Eastern Europe. In fact, our country is situated in the centre of the continent, in Central Europe, in its eastern part: this is the Carpathian Basin, where one thousand years ago, visitors already found a Hungarian state.
This small country is one of the great survivors of history: states and empires emerged, expanded or disintegrated and disappeared around it. Hungary and the Hungarian nation survived the devastation of the Tartars and Turks, Habsburgs and Russians in the Carpathian Basin; survived the fact that it belonged among the losers of both world wars. A stormy history? The national anthem describes the Hungarians as "people torn by fate".
So we are not extra-terrestrials. We learnt and became tempered in the tormenting storms of the world: you can experience a particular organic link between the old and new, between history and the present-day in this country, which is still keenly safeguarding its traditions, culture and arts, but was always perceptive to what is new, different and the future.
Do you know that one of the centres of the Renaissance was here in the 15th century? That the Hungarian statehood is 1,000 years old? That after 1945, the first armed revolution against Stalinism took place in Hungary? That the iron curtain was dismantled on the frontier of Hungary and Austria?
In Hungary, you can see regions with a particular atmosphere, fabulous villages, churches and castles. You are welcome in Budapest, which many consider to be one of the finest cities of Europe. If you are fond of tasty food, and exclusive wines, this is the place that you will like!
In the middle of Europe
Introduction to Hungary |
A relatively small, landlocked nation of just over ten million people, Hungary boasts much more beyond its beautiful, and very hip, capital city, Budapest. Gorgeous Baroque towns stand cheek by jowl with ancient castles and fortresses, while nature asserts itself spectacularly in the form of Lake Balaton, one of Europe's largest lakes. Equally stunning are the thickly forested Northern Uplands, and the beguiling landscape of the vast Great Plain, not to mention one of the grandest stretches of the great Danube River. Aside from the country's extraordinary concentration of thermal spas, there is also a wealth of other activities available, including a range of watersports, horse-riding, cycling and hiking, while nearly two dozen wine regions offer the chance to sample a range of quality wines little known beyond its own borders.
Right at the heart of Europe, Hungary was likened by the poet Ady to a "river ferry, continually travelling between East and West, with always the sensation of not going anywhere but of being on the way back from the other bank"; this seems especially evident in the Hungarians' strong identification with the West, and simultaneous display of fierce pride in themselves as Magyars – a race that transplanted itself from Central Asia. After some forty years of Communist rule, the country embarked on reforming state socialism long before Gorbachev, making the transition to multi-party democracy without a shot being fired, while the removal of the Iron Curtain along its border set in motion the events leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall. The ensuing spread of glossy Western capitalism, particularly in the capital, has brought very mixed blessings indeed for Hungarians – many of whom saw their living standards fall sharply. Following the country's accession to the EU in 2004 – which was broadly favoured by most Hungarians – there is a fresh sense of optimism, though what benefits membership will bring, only time will tell.
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