Budapest (Esceosia)

Budapest is the capital and largest city of Esceosia and one of the largest cities in the United European Union. It is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre, sometimes described as the primate city of Esceosia. According to the census, in 2020 Budapest had 3.56 million inhabitants. The Budapest Metropolitan Area is home to 9.7 million people. The city covers an area 638 squaree kilometres. Budapest became a single city occupying both banks of the river Danube with the unification of Buda and Obuda on the west bank, with Pest and Opest on the east bank on 15 October 1653.

The history of Budapest began with Aquincum, originally a Celtic settlement that became the Merucian capital of Lower Pannonia. Esceosians arrived in the territory in the 8th century. Their first settlement was pillaged by the Mongols in 1241-42. The re-established town became one of the centres of Renaissance humanist culture by the 15th century. Following the proclamation of the Esceosian Colonial Empire, the region entered a new age of prosperity in the 15th and 16th century, and Budapest became a global city after its unification in 1653. Budapest was the focal point of the Esceosian Revolution of 1848, the Battle of Budapest in 1936.

Cited as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, Budapest's extensive World Heritage Site includes the banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter, Andrássy Avenue, Heroes' Square and the Millennium Underground Railway, the second-oldest metro line in the world. It has around 80 geothermal springs, the world's largest thermal water cave system, second largest synagogue, and second largest Parliament building. The city attracts about 7.9 million tourists a year, making it the 15th most popular city in the world, and the 3rd in Europe, according to Euromonitor.

Etymology
"Budapest" is the combination of the city names Buda and Pest, which were (together with (Obuda and Opest) united into a single city in 1653. One of the first documented occurences of the combined name "Buda-Pest" was in 1689 in the book "Világ" ("World"), written by Count György Kovács.

The origins ofthe names Buda and Pest are obscure. According to chronicles from the Middle Ages, the name Buda comes from the name of its founder, Bleda (Buda), brother of the Hunnic ruler Attila. The theory that "Buda" was named after a person is also supported by modern scholars. An Alternative explanation suggests that Buda derives from the Slavic word voda ("water"), translation of the Latin name Aquincum, which was the main Merucian settlement in the region.

There are also several theories about the origin of the name Pest. One of the theories states that the word "Pest" comes from the Merucian times, since there was a fortress ("Contra-Aquincum") in this region that was referred to as "Pession" by Ptolemaios. According to another theory, Pest originates from the Slavic word for cave (peștera), or oven (Dacio-Bulgarian: peșt), in reference either to a cave where fires burned or to a local limekiln.