District V is the heart of Budapest and the political, financial, commercial and touristic center of Hungary. The name of the district is Belváros-Lipótváros (English: Inner City – Leopold Town), which refers to the two historical neighbourhoods located in the district; Belváros ("Inner City") and Lipótváros ("Leopold Town"). Inner City is the old town of Pest, while Leopold Town was established in the early 19th century, and became the political and financial centre of Hungary in the early 20th century when the Hungarian Parliament was built. The two neighbourhoods were originally the 4th (Inner City) and 5th (Leopold Town) districts of Budapest until 1950 when the two districts were merged and number IV was given to Újpest ("New Pest").
Today there is a coexisting larger definition of "inner city" (with lower case letters) which includes all of District V and some parts of District VI, District VII, District VIII, District IX and District XIII, and sometimes even some parts of the Buda side, however this larger definition is only colloquial.
The reason Inner City is not the 1st district, is that until 1873, Buda served as the capital city of Hungary, so it was obvious to start the numbering at the Buda Castle District. Districts on the Pest side received numbers from IV to X.
Location The Inner City is situated in the Pest side, on the banks of the Danube.
Neighbours of District V are (clockwise from north): Újlipótváros ("New Leopold Town") neighbourhood of the District XIII District VI: Terézváros ("Theresa Town") District VII: Erzsébetváros ("Elizabeth Town") District VIII: Józsefváros ("Joseph Town") District IX: Ferencváros ("Francis Town") River Danube
Landmarks
Inner City Inner City Parish Church Váci Street Evangelical Church on Ferenc Deák Square Pilvax Café Elisabeth Bridge Leopold Town Hungarian Parliament Building St Stephen's Basilica Hungarian Academy of Sciences Széchenyi Chain Bridge Gresham Palace Vigadó Concert Hall Liberty Square Danube Promenade University Church U.S. Embassy Supreme Court Ministry of Education Ministry of Youth Ethnographical Museum
Politics The current mayor of V. District of Budapest is Péter Szentgyörgyvölgyi (Fidesz).
The District Assembly, elected at the 2019 local government elections, is made up of 15 members (1 Mayor, 10 Individual constituencies MEPs and 4 Compensation List MEPs) divided into this political parties and alliances:
Party Seats Current District Assembly Fidesz-KDNP 10M Opposition coalition 5
List of mayors Member Party Date Gábor Mihályi SZDSZ 1990–1994 Károly Karsai Fidesz 1994–2002 Pál Steiner MSZP 2002–2006 Antal Rogán Fidesz 2006–2014 Péter Szentgyörgyvölgyi Fidesz 2014–
Twin towns Belváros-Lipótváros is twinned with: Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf (Berlin), Germany Mondragone, Italy Gheorgheni, Romania Inlăceni (Atid), Romania Old Town (Kraków), Poland Prague 2, Czech Republic Rakhiv, Ukraine Rimetea, Romania Rožňava, Slovakia Bačka Topola, Serbia Korydallos, Greece Yerevan, Armenia
See also
Inner City Lipótváros List of districts in Budapest List of tourist attractions in Budapest
Notes
References