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Kiskörút orSmallBoulevard (lit. "SmallRing Road") is a major thoroughfare inBudapest. It forms an incomplete semicircle betweenDeák Square andFővám Square. It is the border of the southern part of District 5 (cf.Belváros), the innermost district ofPest. As opposed toNagykörút, it only touches theDanube at its southern end.
Kiskörút is actually a colloquial name for three parts which connect to each other: (from north to south)Károly körút, Múzeum körút, andVámház körút; these are the names a traveller will find on the map and the buildings.
It consists of a 1.5-kilometre-long (0.93 mi) 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 crossesAstoria andKálvin tér, both basic points of reference for the locals, and it ends up at Fővám tér, a square next toLiberty 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 existingmetro 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.
Vámház körút (literally "Customs House Boulevard") began with a German name,Fleischhacker Gass, in the 1780s, which wasMagyarized toMészáros utca ("Butcher's Street") in the 19th century. When the Budapest's centralcustoms house 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 nameLand Strasse later translated asOrszágút. In 1874, Budapest's Public Works Council decided to divide that road, creating theKiskörút in three sections. The Múzeum körút was named for theHungarian National Museum, which opened in 1847, and Károly körút was named in honour ofCharles IV of Hungary 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.
In 1915, Vámház körút was renamed toFerdinánd körút in honour ofFerdinand I of Bulgaria. Its name was restored to Vámház körút in 1919, but the street was renamed again, taking the name ofIstván Horthy after his death in 1942. In 1945, the street took the name of Soviet military commanderFyodor Tolbukhin until after thesystem change.
Between 1915 and 1918, Múzeum körút was renamed to honour Hungary'sWorld War I ally, Ottoman SultanMehmed V.
In 1918, Károly körút was briefly renamedNépakarat körút ("People's Will Boulevard"), thenNépkörút ("People's Boulevard") before its name was restored in 1926. In 1945, it was renamed to honourBéla Somogyi (aNépszava editor murdered during theWhite Terror in 1920) and in 1953, it was further renamedTanács körút ("Council Boulevard"). Its name was again restored in 1991.
The main sights of Kiskörút are theDohány Street Synagogue (Romantic, 1859), the second largest such building in the world (after the one in New York) with the Jewish Museum and the Holocaust Memorial, theHungarian National Museum (Classicistic, 1847), and theGrand Market Hall (Nagyvásárcsarnok,Neo-gothic, 1896). The Synagogue can be found in a recess near Astoria.
There are two major universities along Kiskörút: the Arts Faculty ofEötvös Loránd University (1883), and the former University of Economics, todayCorvinus University of Budapest (Neo-Renaissance, 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.
47°29′28″N19°03′46″E / 47.4911°N 19.0628°E /47.4911; 19.0628
