Csepel (), officially known as the 21st District of Budapest ( Hungarian: ''Budapest XXI. kerülete'') is a

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

and a neighbourhood in

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 ...

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 ...

. Csepel officially became part of Budapest on 1 January 1950.

Name

The village and the island were named after the first () of the area, ''Csepel'' . The German and Serbo-Croat names are derived from the older Hungarian one .

Location

Csepel is located at the northern end of Csepel Island in the

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

, and covers one-tenth of the island's area. Being on an island, it is the only complete district of Budapest which is neither in Pest nor in

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 ...

. On the western side it is bordered by the Danube, while the Ráckevei-Duna (Ráckeve's Danube) runs along the eastern side. The twenty-first district is bordered by the settlements of Szigetszentmiklós and Lakihegy to the south. It has approximately 85,000 inhabitants.

Transportation

Csepel is most easily accessed from central Budapest by the H7 Csepel HÉV, a high capacity suburban railway. In addition, it is served by BKK buses 138, 35, 36, 148, 151, and 179. Bridges connect Csepel to southern parts of Pest, Ferencváros and Pesterzsébet, and a ferry links Csepel to Soroksár. By car Csepel can be reached by crossing the Kvassay Bridge (''Kvassay híd''), Gubacsi Bridge (''Gubacsi híd''), the D-14 ferry, or via the M0 motorway. A separated bike path is also maintained across the Kvassay and Gubacsi Bridges.

History

Csepel Island became the personal domain of Árpád after the migration of Hungarians into

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 ...

in the early 10th century. It remained a favourite resort of the Hungarian kings in the Middle Ages. From 1484 onwards Csepel was the wedding present to future Hungarian queens. The Ottoman Turks destroyed the village and the royal manor house in the 16th century. At the end of the 17th century, Serb refugees from Turkish-occupied Serbia settled here. At the beginning of the 18th century Prince Eugene of Savoy, owner of the island, re-established the settlement and populated it with German colonists. It became an independent municipality in 1742. The original village was located in the present-day freeport ( Szabadkikötő) area but it was destroyed by the great flood of 1838. The new village was built on higher ground, in present-day Ófalu (Old Village). The town had a population of 9462 according to the 1910 census (the ethnic composition was 84% Hungarian and 18% German). Formerly it was a working-class borough with several factories; there was even a bicycle named ''Csepel''. During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 in Budapest, Hungarian fighters made their last stand in Csepel. Today, Csepel contains housing estates as well as middle-class garden suburbs. The district is home to the sports club

Csepel SC Csepel SC () is a Hungary, Hungarian sports club based in Csepel, the XXI district of Budapest, which is on an island in the Danube in the south of the city. The club was formed in 1912 as ''Csepeli Torna Klub'' ("gymnastics club"). The Csepel ...

Population

Ethnic groups (2001 census): *

Magyars Hungarians, also known as Magyars, are an ethnic group native to Hungary (), who share a common culture, language and history. They also have a notable presence in former parts of the Kingdom of Hungary. The Hungarian language belongs to the ...

– 92.4% *

Germans Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...

– 0.7% * Romani – 0.7% * Others – 0.9% * No answer – 5.3% Religions (2001 census): *

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

– 41.4% *

Calvinist Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...

– 13% *

Greek Catholic Greek Catholic Church or Byzantine-Catholic Church may refer to: * The Catholic Church in Greece * The Eastern Catholic Churches The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also known as the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Ea ...

– 2.2% *

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

– 1.7% * Other (

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

) – 1% * Other (non-Christian) – 0.3% * Atheists – 25.1% * No answer, unknown – 15.2%

Landmarks

Noteworthy sights include the Baroque parish church built in 1770, the Csepel Gallery and Museum of Local History (newly moved to Szent Istvan ut. 230), and the Csepel Collection of Factory History.

List of mayors

Twin towns – sister cities

Csepel is twinned with: * Băile Tușnad, Romania * Gănești, Romania *

Kielce Kielce (; ) is a city in south-central Poland and the capital of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. In 2021, it had 192,468 inhabitants. The city is in the middle of the Świętokrzyskie Mountains (Holy Cross Mountains), on the banks of the Silnic ...

, Poland *

Rijeka Rijeka (; Fiume ( �fjuːme in Italian and in Fiuman dialect, Fiuman Venetian) is the principal seaport and the List of cities and towns in Croatia, third-largest city in Croatia. It is located in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County on Kvarner Ba ...

, Croatia *

Salonta Salonta (; , colloquially , ; ) is a municipiu, city in Bihor County, in the geographical region of Crișana, north-western Romania, near the Hungarian border. Population According to the 2021 Romanian census, 2021 census, Salonta has a popu ...

, Romania * Wołomin, Poland

Gallery

Csepelcivertanlegi2.jpg Városháza, Csepel, civertan légi1.jpg Kisboldogasszony-templom, Csepel, civertan, légi3.jpg Csepelcivertanlegi4.jpg Csepelcivertanlegi5.jpg, Béke téri Stadion Csepelcivertanlegi6.jpg

References

External links

Official web site

Aerial photographs of Csepel
{{Districts of Budapest