Józsefváros is district VIII of Budapest; it translates as Joseph's Town. It's the southern part of Belváros, the downtown Pest, still close to the centre.
It's currently under re-development as part of the Budapest City Council's development plan for the renewal of the city.
The main streets in Józsefváros are Baross utca, Rákóczi út and Üllői út; Kálvin tér connects this district with the 5th and 9th. Keleti (Eastern) Railway Station is located at the junction of 7th, 8th and 14th districts.
Description
Józsefváros mostly consists of old, often neglected residential buildings with nice interiors. It can be divided into two parts, roughly at Nagykörút (Great Ring Road).
The inner, more central part includes several remarkable spots, such as the National Museum, and the central buildings of the ELTE university, the Semmelweis University, the Academy of Drama and Film , and the Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library, complemented by the Kempelen Farkas Student Information and Resource Centre. The Piarist Secondary School, the main building of the Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church, and the Law Faculty of the Péter Pázmány Catholic University are also situated here, as well as the Hungarian Radio. This part is called "Palace Quarter", out of which one can still see Wenckheim Palace, hosting the Metropolitan Library, and Pálffy Palace with the Classical Music Collection of the above. This neighborhood underwent major renovations around 2002 and it has become a happy, swarming place with scores of students and several cafés and pizzerias.
The other side, beyond Nagykörút (about half a mile farther) has a worse reputation due to the former prostitution, which has been mostly eliminated through cameras throughout the district. In this part one can find the Centre for Foreign Languages (with its examination place), Erkel Theatre (a department of the Hungarian State Opera House), the Hungarian Natural History Museum, Corvin Budapest Film Palace (a multiplex cinema), one of Budapest's biggest gardens (Orczy-kert), and a large complex of cliniques (in both parts of the district). Kerepesi temető , the park-like cemetery with its mausoleums for the most reputable historical personalities in Hungary, is also situated here.
Related novels and movies
Ferenc Molnár 's youth novel, The Paul Street Boys (A Pál utcai fiúk, 1907), which was made into film several times, originally takes place at real venues of this district: Pál utca, Mária utca and Füvészkert (botanical garden).
In 2004, a caricaturistic movie was made about the infamous part of this district, entitled Nyócker (a shortened colloquial form of nyolcadik kerület, eighth district). This film displays the Hungarian, Roma, Chinese and Arabic dwellers and their conflicts in a humorous way, embedded into a fictive story of a few schoolchildren's oil-making time-travel.
The starting and closing scenes of Fateless (Sorstalanság, 2005), the movie made from Imre Kertész's Nobel Prize winning novel, were screened in this district, namely at Lőrinc pap tér.
External link
Last updated: 05-27-2005 02:48:01
