The Lipótváros district of Pest and Budapest, bordered by the present-day Szent István körút, Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út, Deák Ferenc utca and the Danube, played a major role in the development and life of the capital. It was the first urban development in Pest after the Old Town, which bordered it from the south. Its area was divided into a system of chessboard streets. In the southern part, up to the huge military New Building (1786-89), a neoclassical quarter was established in the first half of the 19th century, while in the northern part, which was still closed to development, rolling mills and factories were established. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867,  the latter area - increasingly centralised thanks to the growth of Budapest - became more valuable. New streets and a series of ornate palatial apartment blocks were built, the Parliament and many other administrative and legislative buildings of national importance were erected here, while industrial buildings were gradually displaced. As a result of this large-scale development, the northern part of the city became one of the most important areas of the capital, along with the Castle District, which included the Royal Palace and the ministries. The New Building, which stood as a barrier in the middle of the district, was demolished only in 1897-98. It was replaced by the new Liberty Square, which became the financial centre of the country thanks to the buildings erected there. The changes did not leave the southern part of the city untouched either: most of its neoclassical palaces and houses were rebuilt, enlarged or demolished and replaced by new, larger and more lavish buildings. The siege of Budapest in 1944-45, and the unnecessary demolition of some of the damaged houses, caused some painful losses to the district's building stock, but the vast majority survived the ordeal. Until World War II, Lipótváros was Budapest's 5th district; after World War II, it was merged with City Center (Belváros), still under the name of District V.

One of the most recent project of our institute aimed at examining the archaeological heritage of Budapest, the first step we began this was to list systematically the buildings of Lipótváros (the Northern part of the inner city in district 5). In the gallery, which we are constantly expanding, you can see the photographs of the buildings. In this way we would like to document this almost unparalleled complex of buildings in Budapest, the true concentration of late historicizm and Art Nouveau architecture with both detailed photographic material and reliable data. The original photographs are made in very high resolution, with a low resolution view in the gallery. The order of the folders follows today's street names and house numbers, and their names correspond to it. If it is a major public building, the name of the folder includes its original short form name.

The photos were taken by Péter Hámori. The photo gallery was compiled by Lilla Farbakyné Deklava, György Papp Gábor, Zsuzsa Sidó and József Sisa, and the gallery was created by Attila Égető.

Photographs can be used under the Attribution licence of Creative Commons.