Citadella Gift Shop
Liberty Gift Shop
Chimney Cake
Liberty Café
EN 
The First on the Continent: The Significance of the Millennium Underground Railway
When the Budapest Millennium Underground Railway (M1) opened in 1896, on the thousandth anniversary of the Hungarian conquest (Millennium), the world looked with wonder upon the Hungarian capital. Although an underground railway was already operating in London by then, the Budapest line was continental Europe's first underground railway, and the first anywhere in the world designed from the outset for electric traction (the London one was initially steam-powered).
The reason for its construction was purely pragmatic and a matter of urban planning. The city leadership did not want to disfigure the newly built, elegant Andrássy Avenue with the rails and overhead wires of surface trams, yet enormous crowds had to be transported to the Millennium Exhibition held in the City Park (Városliget). The solution was the "just beneath the surface" railway.
The Siemens & Halske company built the line in just 20 months using the so-called cut-and-cover method: the road was dug up, the tunnel was built, and then it was filled back in. The engineering precision and the elegance of the stations decorated with Zsolnay tiles remain unrivalled to this day. The line was not merely a means of transport but tangible proof of Budapest's cosmopolitan ambitions and modernisation.
The story of the historic line, however, did not end with the Millennium celebrations. It underwent its most significant modernisation in 1973, when the line was extended to today's Mexikói út terminus, and the distinctive yellow Ganz–MÁVAG carriages, still in service today, were put into operation. The industrial-historical and cultural significance of the line was placed beyond question when, in 2002, it was declared part of the UNESCO World Heritage together with Andrássy Avenue.
Today the line is not a static museum relic but a living artery of the city: tens of thousands of tourists and locals use it every day, as it remains the fastest and most atmospheric connection between Vörösmarty Square and Heroes' Square.
Celebrate this remarkable UNESCO World Heritage Site with our unique underground-railway graphic collection, available exclusively at the Citadella and Szabadság gift shops.
Image source: Adobe Stock
