Budapest 150: Anniversary Program Series Launched

Man of the City, Pro Urbe and other honors were awarded at a ceremony held on Thursday at the City Hall on the occasion of the Capital Day, which also marked the the start of a two-year series of celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the unification of Budapest, the state news agency MTI reports.

In his speech, Mayor Gergely Karácsony said that the now 149-year-old Budapest preserves the remnants of the civic ethos of this country. "The civic ethos means that we prefer the truth to lies in all circumstances, that politics is not about ruling the moment but about seeking the truth, and that we seek solutions rather than scapegoats," he said.

Gergely Karácsony stressed that the citizen, the civic city, cannot be of anything but of solidarity: even in times of peace, but certainly in times of crisis. "Neither the citizen nor the civic city can abandon anyone, especially now, because we will not be able to get through this long, hard winter that awaits us in any other way, unless we do not give in to solidarity."

He said that "we insist that the greatness of this city lies in its diversity and in our belief that we who believe in humanity, in humanity, in fairness, in civic courage, in solidarity, have a better story. And here in Budapest, we organize our lives in the spirit of that story."

He added that next year, Budapest celebrates its 150th birthday, and that this anniversary is not about the founding, but about unification, that "for a century and a half, we have inhabited this place with all our differences. From the experience of the past century and a half, “we know that the city is successful when these contrasts complement each other rather than cancel each other out," Gergely Karácsony stated.

According to a decision of the Municipal Assembly of Budapest on March 21 1991, the capital's day is November17, in memory of the day on which Pest, Buda and Óbuda were united in 1873. Celebrations will run until 17 November 2024.

The Mayor said that the celebrations will be very open and will allow citizens to be actively involved. At the same time, he added that it was partly a question of budget what could be realized next year.

He stressed that they want to create a rose garden of 3,200 plants to symbolize all the municipalities of Hungary and national unity in the Jubilee Park on Gellért Hill.