The text and images below are adapted from a guide book titled Illustrated description of Hungary and its capital written by V. Hornyanszky sometime in 1910-12. Although it is not the most updated guide book per se, still, the information presented in it is surprisingly useful. It is also useful in terms of being able to see how things have changed over the past century. For example, it talks about the recent discovery of Lake Balaton as a resort area. Today, on the contrary, after a few decades of intense use Balaton is losing out to overseas destinations such as Croatia, Thailand, the Maldives, etc.

The descriptions of Budapest are especially interesting. Since the end of the Communist regime, most of the street names have been renamed to their original pre-war names, which are precisely the ones used in this guide book.

Another curious feature in the guide book is the presence of territories since then taken away from Hungary. For example, it talks about Croatia and Slavonia, Slovakia and Transylvania as typical Hungarian regions, but all of these belong now to neighbouring countries.

I believe that this guide book of Hungary and Budapest is a useful reading for anyone interested in the subject or anyone who is planning a visit to Hungary.

Budapest
Material Development
Cultural Development
Municipal Administration
The City of Budapest
The Right Bank of the Danube
The Left Bank of the Danube
Around Budapest
Transdanubia
Croatia, Slavonia, Fiume
North-west Hungary
North-east Hungary
The Central Carpathians
The Hungarian Lowlands
Transylvania
General Remarks On Hungary

Table of contents