Little Boulevard (Budapest)

Kiskörút or Small Boulevard (lit. "Small Ring Road") is a major thoroughfare in Budapest. It forms an incomplete semicircle between Deák Square and Fővám Square. It is the border of the southern part of District 5 (cf. Belváros), the innermost district of Pest. As opposed to Nagykörút, it only touches the Danube at its southern end.

Kiskörút is actually a colloquial name for three parts which connect to each other: (from north to south) Károly körút, Múzeum körút and Vámház körút; these are the names a traveller will find on the map and the buildings.

It consists of a 1.5 km long road with a tram line in the middle. Its width is around 55 m in the north and it narrows down to 27 m in the south. Its starting point is Deák tér in the north, it crosses Astoria and Kálvin tér, both basic points of reference for the locals, and it ends up at Fővám tér, a square next to Liberty Bridge. Among the major roads, it crosses Rákóczi út at Astoria and Üllői út at Kálvin tér. Deák tér is the meeting point of the three existing metro lines, and Metro 2 and 3 both have a further station as well at Astoria and Kálvin tér. The new Metro 4 has stations at Fővám tér and Kálvin tér.

Vámház körút (literally "Customs House Boulevard") began with a German name, Fleischhacker Gass, in the 1780s, which was Magyarized to Mészáros utcá ("Butcher's Street") in the 19th century. When the Budapest's central customs house was built (at what is now Fővám tér) in 1875, the road's name was changed accordingly.

From the 18th century, the sections of road known today as Múzeum körút and Károly körút were (together with today's Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út) known by a single German name Land Strasse later translated as Országút. In 1874, Budapest's Public Works Council decided to divide that road, creating the Kiskörút in three sections. The Múzeum körút was named for the Hungarian National Museum, which opened in 1847, and Károly körút was named in honour of Charles IV of Hungary and the barracks that bore his name alongside the road. From that point on, Vámház körút was also considered part of the same boulevard, and Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út was split off.

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