Békásmegyer

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Békásmegyer (German: Krottendorf) is a neighbourhood in Budapest, Hungary. It belongs administratively to District III. Békásmegyer is consisted of two different parts, a huge high rise housing estate and the traditional Ófalu ("Old Village") with older houses. Békásmegyer is divided into two by the Szentendre Suburban Railway line. It was an independent municipality until 1 January 1950 when it was merged into Budapest.

[edit] Location

It is situated on the edge of Budapest next to Budakalász, the Danube and the hills of Buda. Békásmegyer is the last train station inside of Budapest on the HÉV suburban railway line.

[edit] Name

The first recorded name of the village was Megyer which refers to the fact that people from the Megyer tribe (who gave their name to Magyars) settled here after the migration of Hungarians into Pannonia in the early 10th century. Megyer belongs to the oldest strata of Hungarian toponymy.

In the second half of the 17th century Megyer was destroyed by the wars with Ottoman Turks. The village was resettled by German colonist from the 1740s onwards. They called the village Krottendorf (literally "Frogbury") because of the frog-populated marshes of the Danube river meadows.

Hungarians called the village Békás-Megyer, meaning "Frog's Megyer", since the beginning of the 19th century. Now District III. is officially called Óbuda-Békásmegyer.