2011 KISPEST - Városkalauz

A kerület múltja és jelene � The District's past and present
Traditions and modernisation
In the fi rst written documents (1869) about Kispest the town was listed as ‘Colonie Klein Pest’. Since 1723
the area belonged to the lordship of Gödöllô, to the property of the Grassalkovich noble family. According to
the earliest maps of the area, today’s Kispest was an uninhabited, not really valuable agricultural area. After
the extinction of the Grassalkovich family the property changed hands several times, and in 1864 it became
the property of Banque de Crédit Fonciére et Industrielle. At fi rst, the fi nancial institution, headquartered in
Belgium, planned to establish a model farm, however, they soon realised that their plans are not really profi table.
Therefore they sold the area, containing wetlands and reed beds, separated into 50-100-500-acre parcels.
Although the new owners had to take into
consideration the problems caused by the
groundwater, they could be sure that because
of the short distance to Pest, their properties will
preserve their value on the long term. Some of
them planned to establish a holiday site here,
others were thinking about utilising the area for
hunters and fishermen. Those who were speculating
about preserving the value of the land, made
a good choice as already at the beginning of
1870’s one could know that by the union of Pest,
Buda and Óbuda the new capital city of the
country is soon to be created, and the economic
significance of the area along Üllôi country road,
lying only 9-10 kilometres from the centre of Pest,
as a suburb, may increase a lot.
� This meant that all those who had previously
purchased a larger-size property here, could count
Hôsök szobra – Hybl József alkotása
Statue of heroes – Artwork by József Hybl
Kossuth tér a Kossuth-szoborral
Kossuth Square with the statue of Kossuth
on receiving a substantial revenue from the separation
of their properties into smaller parcels. It
was not by chance that the separation of the land
located closer to the border of Pest was carried out
only after the foundation of the town. In 1869
there were altogether 361 houses built on the
area, and in 1871 its inhabitants applied for the
title of a temporary smaller town. In 1872 the
social transport service was started, reaching the
final stop of the horse railway line of Pest, this way
making accessible the workplaces of Pest and
Kôbánya. However, the foundation of holiday
places of Southern Pest was soon cancelled.
� Since 1873 Kispest had been showing a rapid
development, in 1874 it received a title of a big
town, and till 1909 beyond its today’s areas it
encorporated also Pestszentlôrinc. The number of
inhabitants had been increasing continuously,
together with the number of residential buildings.
Those who purchased parcels here were led by the
Városkalauz � Budapest, Kispest 2011 5