4+1 things you did not know about Budapest’s underground railways

The renovation of metro line 3 (M3) started this weekend (6 November), and in honour of this outstanding event, magyarorszagkul.nlcafe.hu collected a few interesting but rarely-known facts about the underground railway system of Budapest. Let’s forget about the chaos caused by the consequences of M3’s renovation for a few minutes.

You can gaze at artwork while waiting for the next metro

If one gets off M3 at Dózsa György station, one can gaze at the beautiful mural depicting György Dózsa who was a famous Hungarian man-at-arms in the 15^th century. The 10-metres-long painted porcelain mural (titled Dózsa pannó) was finished in 1984 by Hungarian painter Endre Szász.

Even king Franz Joseph I travelled with M1

Budapest’s metro line 1 (M1) was completed by 1896, for the 1000th anniversary of the Hungarian conquest. This was the very first underground railway on the European continent.

At that time, people could get from Gizella square (today’s Vörösmarty square) to Széchenyi Thermal Bath by M1.

Even Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, travelled with the newly finished underground railway, and he was pleased with the result.

The metro line was extended in 1973 (until Mexikó street) and it was fully renovated in the 1990’s.

In case of emergency

After the second world war, the public transportation of Budapest, as basically everything else in the city, was seriously damaged. Renovations started in the 1950’s, during the communist regime in Hungary. The undergrounds were renovated in such a way that in case of an atomic attack, these could serve as bunkers for the people of Budapest.

Fortunately, this function of the underground railways never had to be used.