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Pest (Hungarian pronunciation:[ˈpɛʃt]) is the part ofBudapest, the capital city ofHungary, that lies on the eastern bank of theDanube. Pest was administratively unified withBuda andÓbuda in 1873; prior to this, it was an independent city. In colloquialHungarian, "Pest" is sometimes also usedpars pro toto to refer to Budapest as a whole.
Comprising about two-thirds of the city's area, Pest is flatter and much more heavily urbanized than Buda. Many of Budapest's most notable sites are in Pest, including theInner City (Hungarian:Belváros), theParliament (Országház), theOpera, theGreat Market Hall,Heroes' Square, andAndrássy Avenue.
According toPtolemy the settlement was calledPession in antiquity, with the official Roman name being Contra-Aquincum (seeAquincum for Roman town across the Danube in what becameÓbuda).[citation needed] Alternatively, the namePest may have come from a Slavic word meaning "furnace", "oven" (Bulgarianпещ[ˈpɛʃt]; Serbianпећ/peć; Croatianpeć), related to the wordпещера (peshtera, meaning "cave"), probably with reference to a local cave where fire burned.[1] The spellingPesth was occasionally used in English, even as late as the early 20th century,[2] although it is now considered archaic.
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Pest was originally founded as aCeltic settlement, then a fortified camp established by theRomans (Contra-Aquincum) across the river from their military border camp atAquincum. Remains of the original Roman camp can still be seen at Március 15. tér.
During the Middle Ages, Pest was an independentcity separate from Buda/Ofen, which became an important economic center during the 11th–13th centuries. The first written mention dates back to 1148.
Pest was destroyed in the 1241Mongol invasion of Hungary, but was rebuilt shortly thereafter.
Demographically, in the 15th century Pest was mostly Hungarian, while Buda across the Danube had a German-majority population.[4]
In 1838 Pest was flooded by theDanube; parts of the city were under as much as eight feet of water, and the flood destroyed or seriously damaged three-fourths of the city's buildings.[5] In 1849 the first suspension bridge, theSzéchenyi Chain Bridge, was constructed across the Danube connecting Pest withBuda. Subsequently, in 1873, the two cities were unified withÓbuda to becomeBudapest.
47°30′N19°6′E / 47.500°N 19.100°E /47.500; 19.100
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