The XIV. district was created on 13 February 1935, when a Decree was passed by the Committee of Budapest Capital Council, forming a new district from the outer parts of older districts (VI. district – Terézváros, VII. district – Erzsébetváros and X. district – Kőbánya). At first they named it Rákosváros, which was renamed in the making of Greater Budapest in 1950, gaining it’s name which stands to this day – Zugló.
The origin of the name „Zugló” has two possible explanations. The first one assumes the word „szuglyó” or „zugla” meant some sort of distant alley, nook, or perhaps – in our modern way of understanding – a dead end in XIX. Century Hungarian, so it would indicate Zugló meant the the outer rim of historical Pest.
The second theory comes from „szugló”, a term of German origin, which meant a swamp hole, referring to the former moorland nature of the Városliget.
Zugló’s area is 18,15 square kilometres (around 7 square miles). The district’s significant part, around 2 400 000 sqaure meters (about 593 acres) are green areas. The second biggest public park of Budapest, the Városliget is also located here. Among with the Széchenyi Thermal Bath, the Budapest Zoo and Botanical Garden, the Vajdahunyad castle, the Capital Circus of Budapest, the City Park Ice Rink and the Heroes’ Square, it’s not only a popular place among locals, but is one of the most visited sites by tourists in Budapest.
Zugló’s most notable natural recources are the thermal waters under the Városliget. Discovering this resource is the achievement of a mining engineer’s long work, Vilmos Zsigmondy (1821-1888). The hot spring discovered by Zsigmondy is still feeding the Széchenyi Thermal Bath to this day.
Zugló’s population is around 123 thousand people, which makes it the third most populated district of the Capital. The first governing body of the district, the Magistrate was founded in the Újvidék street. Zugló had 18 leaders (mayors, council presidents). The first mayor of the district was Oszkár Schmaderer, who led Zugló between 1935 and 1942.
Zugló’s current mayor is Csaba Horváth, starting his term in October 2019. Current Vice Mayors are Flórián Hajdu, Zsolt Horváth, András Rózsa and Rebeka Szabó. Zugló’s current notary is dr. Zsolt Tiba.
Contact:
1145 Budapest,Pétervárad u. 2.
Phone: +36 1 8729 100
E-mail: hivatal@zuglo.hu
