Do you know how many Budapests there are in the world?

People say everyone has a doppelganger somewhere around the world. I was stopped a few weeks ago in a restaurant by a random stranger who wanted to take a photo with me. He said he has an American friend who looks completely identical to me. Same hair colour, same face, same glasses etc. What if I tell you that certain cities have their own, too? Of course, they only share their name and have some sort of relationship with the original. There is a London and a Sydney in Canada, a Saint Petersburg in Florida, a Paris in Texas, and a Moscow in Kansas. The list could go on for decades. One thing is for sure: Budapest, the Hungarian capital, has its own sister settlements as well.

1. Budapest, Haralson County, Georgia, USA

By the end of the 1880s, new immigrants arrived in Georgia: Hungarians. It is said that they were invited by Ralph L. Spencer, a gentleman from Connecticut. He wanted to make Haralson County prosper by planting vineyards on the hills of the area, and he needed people who were more or less experienced in the field. He invited the central European immigrants from the mines of the north who were happy to join him as they got the chance to own land and do something that reminded them of their beloved homeland. Approximately 200 families moved to Haralson County, Georgia, and established a settlement which they named after Budapest, in honour of the capital of Hungary. Later, two other settlements had been given Hungarian names as well around Budapest: Tokaj, named after the famous vineyard village, and Nyitra, which currently belongs to Slovakia.

Budapest was flourishing: Hungarians built a school, a Catholic church, a cemetery and other social institutions. Thanks to the local climate, everything went as planned by Ralph L. Spencer since wine production thrived in the area. They had a decent living and helped the Georgia Vineyard Company to become one of the influential companies of the West. Spencer even hired a Catholic priest to satisfy the spiritual needs of the Hungarians. Unfortunately, they were reluctant to learn English as a lingua franca to mitigate communication boundaries with the American citizens, which led to conflicts with the pilgrims of the state; however, this was not the main cause of the downfall coming in the early 20th century.