Everyone knows that the Hungarian capital is Budapest - but that wasn’t quite the case 150 years ago. Budapest was born in 1873 from the merger of Buda, Óbuda and Pest, since then, the official birthday of Budapest is 17 November, although noting particular has happened on that day. Well, yes, Budapest was technically born, but the 3 cities made for the merger many, many years ago.

The natural process of urban development, with the increase of population, new constructions, millions of business, social, political and other connections almost making the three parts one by itself. On the other hand, the leadership of the age was officially prepared for the obvious integration, but of course a lot of work had to be done: the councils of the separate cities had a constant working relationship with each other for years.

During the spring of 1873, the elaboration of the cities was already carried out by the so-called a committee of thirty-four appointed members - ten from Buda, twenty from Pest and four from Óbuda. The design of the new crest of the city were made by Lajos Fridrich and the crest collector Gusztáv Altenburger, with the help of a number of excellent scholarly experts, and although many discussions surrounded its finalization, everything that was important was included. We still use this crest today, one hundred and fortyseven long years later (though not unbroken).

So let's celebrate now, happy birthday, Budapest!