9th International Congress on THERMAL STRESSES 2011
June 5-9, 2011,
Budapest
Budapest University of Technology and Economics and Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Budapest, Hungary
http://ts2011.mm.bme.hu/
Budapest, the capital city of Hungary, was created through the unification in 1873 of the separate
historic towns of Buda, Pest and Óbuda. Whilst the area had been inhabited from early times, it was
from this date that the city's expansion into a world capital really began. Budapest is bisected by the
River Danube, with the city as much a natural geographical centre as the country's administrative,
cultural and transport hub. Covering an area of two hundred square miles and divided into 23
administrative districts, today it is home to a population of 1.8 million people.
Flowing north to south through the centre of the city is the mighty River Danube. Buda and Óbuda,
comprising roughly a third of the total surface area of the city, are situated mainly in the hills to the
west, with commercial Pest on the plains to the east. There are three islands - Óbuda Island,
Margaret Island and Csepel Island - and nine bridges, two of which carry railway lines. The
oldest of the Danube Bridges is Lánchíd - Chain Bridge.
The building of the Matthias church (aka Church of Our Lady) standing prominently on the Castle
Hill, is named after the famous renaissance king, who held both of his weddings here. His coat of
arms with the black raven is still visible on the south tower. It used to be the coronation church of
Hungary for some six centuries. The first king crowned here was Charles Robert in 1308 and the
last one was Charles IV. of Habsburg in 1916. During the Turkish occupation the church was
converted to a mosque.
On the top of the old fortress walls, the Fishermen's Bastion was constructed between 1895 and
1902. It is named after the fishermen's guild in charge of defending this part of the castle wall in
the middle ages. The Bastion itself never held a defence function. The architect of the neo-gothic
building was Frigyes Schulek. The seven towers symbolize the seven chieftains, who conquered
the land for the Hungarians.
The Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, MTA) is the most
important and prestigious learned society of Hungary. Its seat is on the Pest riverfront of Budapest,
opposite to the Castle Hill. The history of the academy began in 1825, when Count István Széchenyi
offered one year's income of his estate for the purposes of a Learned Society at a district session
of the parliament in Pressburg (today Bratislava, seat of the Hungarian Parliament at the time), and
his example was followed by other delegates. Its task was specified as the development of the
Hungarian language and the study and propagation of the sciences and the arts in Hungarian.
It received its current name in 1845. Its central building was inaugurated in 1865, in neo-Renaissance style.
Located on the Buda side of the Danube, between Szabadság and Lágymányosi Bridges, the
Budapest University of Technology and Economics (Budapesti Műszaki és Gazdaságtudományi
Egyetem, abbreviated as BME), is the most significant University of Technology in Hungary
and is also one of the oldest Institutes of Technology in the world. The legal predecessor of the
university was founded in 1782 by Emperor Joseph II. In 1910 it moved to its current site near
Gellért square (next to the Art Nouveau Hotel Gellért). In 1934 it was reorganized as Palatine
Joseph University of Technology and Economics and it played a dominant role in the interwar
industrialization process, together with engineer and economist training in Hungary. The 1956
Hungarian Revolution was partly launched by students at the university, followed by many professors.
