BUDAPEST, one of the most beautiful cities of the Continent, is situated on the banks of the majestic Danube, near to where this mightiest stream of middle Europe, suddenly turns its course from East to South. The Hungarian Metropolis lies at the foot of charming hills, crowned by the imposing Royal Palace; towards the South, the rocky mass of the Gellerthegy with its old citadel, enhances the general view of the City Magnificent modern edifices give it a character of vigorous youth; for though its history reaches back into a dim, grey past, the Budapest of today is the product of an unusually rapid rise, dating only from the re-establishment of the Hungarian Constitution in 1867.

It is therefore, a modern City, in which old, historical buildings and treasures of art, are almost entirely missing, but which, on the other hand, offers all that one can demand of a modern capital. Its municipal institutions are well planned, its buildings magnificent, because they are all creations of a most modern age, an age in which luxury and taste were the authoritative factors of development; and if we here and there feel a lack of consolidation, it is just a result of this rapid growth, that for its dimensions could truly be called American, and that only now begins to receive a certain stability

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Adapted from Illustrated Description of Hungary and its Capital