Pest

Pest or The Pest may refer to:

Science and medicine

Arts

Places

Other

See also

Pest County

Pest County (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈpɛʃt]) is a county (megye) in central Hungary. It covers an area of 6,393.14 square kilometres (2,468.41 sq mi), and has a population of 1,213,090 (2009). It surrounds the national capital Budapest and the majority of the county's population (65.2%/790,995 in 2009) live in the suburbs of Budapest. It shares borders with Slovakia and the Hungarian counties Nógrád, Heves, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok, Bács-Kiskun, Fejér and Komárom-Esztergom. The River Danube flows through the county. The capital of Pest County is Budapest (administratively separate).

History

The present county Pest was formed after World War II, when the former county Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskun was split in two parts (the other part is within present-day Bács-Kiskun). Pest County also existed in the early days of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary (11th century). Its territory comprised approximately the north-eastern part of present Pest County. It was combined with adjacent Pilis county before the 15th century. More information can be found at the entry of former Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskun county.

Pest, Hungary

Pest (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈpɛʃt]) is the eastern, mostly flat part of Budapest, Hungary, comprising about two thirds of the city's territory. It is separated from Buda, the other part of Budapest, by the Danube River. Among its most notable parts are the Inner City, including the Hungarian Parliament, Heroes' Square and Andrássy Avenue. In colloquial Hungarian, "Pest" is often used for the whole capital of Budapest.

Etymology

The name Pest comes from a Slavic word meaning "furnace", "oven" (Bulgarian пещ ['peʃt]; Serbian пећ; Croatian "peć"), related to the word пещера (meaning "cave"), probably with reference to a local cave where fire burned.

History

Pest was a separate independent city, references to which appear in writings dating back to 1148. In earlier centuries there were ancient Celtic and Roman settlements there. Pest became an important economic center during 11th–13th centuries. It was destroyed in the 1241 Mongol invasion of Hungary but rebuilt once again soon thereafter. In 1838 it was flooded by the Danube; parts of the city were under as much as eight feet of water, and the flood destroyed or seriously damaged three-fourths of the city’s buildings. In 1849 the first suspension bridge, the Széchenyi Chain Bridge, was constructed across the Danube connecting Pest with Buda. Consequently, in 1873, the two cities were unified with Óbuda to become Budapest.