Throughout its history, the European country of

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

, changed the location of its

capital city A capital city, or just capital, is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state (polity), state, province, department (administrative division), department, or other administrative division, subnational division, usually as its ...

several times.

Middle Ages

Esztergom Esztergom (; ; or ; , known by Names of European cities in different languages: E–H#E, alternative names) is a city with county rights in northern Hungary, northwest of the capital Budapest. It lies in Komárom-Esztergom County, on the righ ...

, from 1000 to 1256 (it was also one of the centers of the

Principality of Hungary The Grand Principality of Hungary or Duchy of Hungary (: "Hungarian Grand Principality", ) was the earliest documented Hungarian state in the Carpathian Basin, established in 895 or 896, following the 9th century Magyar invasion of the Carpath ...

, probably from the reigns of Grand Prince Taksony or Géza) *

Székesfehérvár Székesfehérvár (; ; ; ; Serbian language, Serbian: ''Стони Београд''; ), known colloquially as Fehérvár (), is a city in central Hungary, and the country's ninth-largest city. It is the Regions of Hungary, regional capital of C ...

, it often changed the capital title with Esztergom (one of the centers of the

until Stephen's crowning. Royal seats, crowning, burials, and

Hungarian Diet The Diet of Hungary or originally: Parlamentum Publicum / Parlamentum Generale () was the most important political assembly in Hungary since the 12th century, which emerged to the position of the supreme legislative institution in the Kingdom ...

s took place from 1000 to 1543) *

Buda Buda (, ) is the part of Budapest, the capital city of Hungary, that lies on the western bank of the Danube. Historically, “Buda” referred only to the royal walled city on Castle Hill (), which was constructed by Béla IV between 1247 and ...

, from 1256 to 1315, from 1408 to 1485 and from 1490 to 1536 (1541)Pressburg became the capital of Habsburg Hungary ( Royal Hungary) in 1536, however the

Queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

, the infant counter-king John II and George Martinuzzi secured Buda until the Ottoman annexation (1541) * Temesvár (present-day Timișoara), 1315–1323Kristó Gyula - Barta János - Gergely Jenő: Magyarország története előidőktől 2000-ig (History of Hungary from the prehistory to 2000), Pannonica Kiadó, Budapest, 2002, , p. 687, pp. 120-121 ("1315-ben Károly a királyi székhelyet a kevésbé biztonságos Budáról a nehezen megközelíthető Temesvárra helyezte át.."/"In 1315 Charles Robert moved the royal seat from the less safety Buda to the outway Temesvár (Timișoara).", "Károly Róbert a királyi székhelyet 1323 tavaszán Temesvárról Visegrádra helyezte át."/"Charles Robert moved the royal seat from Temesvár (Timișoara) to Visegrád in the spring of 1323") * Visegrád, from 1323 to 1408 * Bécs (Vienna), from 1485 to 1490, when

Matthias Corvinus Matthias Corvinus (; ; ; ; ; ) was King of Hungary and King of Croatia, Croatia from 1458 to 1490, as Matthias I. He is often given the epithet "the Just". After conducting several military campaigns, he was elected King of Bohemia in 1469 and ...

occupied

Lower Austria Lower Austria ( , , abbreviated LA or NÖ) is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Major cities are Amstetten, Lower Austria, Amstetten, Krems an der Donau, Wiener Neustadt and Sankt Pölten, which ...

and put his seat to Bécs (Vienna)

Modern era

* Pressburg/Pozsony (present-day Bratislava) from 1536 to 1783 (during Ottoman occupation) * Lippa (present-day Lipova), from 1541 to 1542, capital of the

Eastern Hungarian Kingdom The Eastern Hungarian Kingdom ( ) is a modern term coined by some historians to designate the realm of John Zápolya and his son John Sigismund Zápolya, who contested the claims of the House of Habsburg to rule the Kingdom of Hungary from 1526 ...

for a short time * Gyulafehérvár (present-day Alba Iulia), from 1542 to 1570, royal residence and the capital of the

(it was also the centre of the latter Principality of Transylvania) *

, from 1783 to 1873 *

Debrecen Debrecen ( ; ; ; ) is Hungary's cities of Hungary, second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain Regions of Hungary, region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the large ...

, in 1849 and in 1944 (during the

Hungarian Revolution of 1848 The Hungarian Revolution of 1848, also known in Hungary as Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence of 1848–1849 () was one of many Revolutions of 1848, European Revolutions of 1848 and was closely linked to other revolutions of 1848 in ...

and at the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

) *

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

(including Buda), 1873–''present''

Capitals of Pannonia province

Note that the

Roman province The Roman provinces (, pl. ) were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as Roman g ...

s on the territory of today's Hungary, notably

Pannonia Pannonia (, ) was a Roman province, province of the Roman Empire bounded on the north and east by the Danube, on the west by Noricum and upper Roman Italy, Italy, and on the southward by Dalmatia (Roman province), Dalmatia and upper Moesia. It ...

, had other capitals. Capitals of Roman (Lower) Pannonia, located in the territory of present-day Hungary, were:

Aquincum Aquincum (, ) was an ancient city, situated on the northeastern borders of the province of Pannonia within the Roman Empire. The ruins of the city can be found in Budapest, the capital city of Hungary. It is believed that Marcus Aurelius wrote ...

(today ''Óbuda''), Savaria (today ''Szombathely'') and Sopianae (today ''Pécs'').

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Historical Capitals Of Hungary Historical capitals Historical capitals of Hungary