Budapest

He mentioned one type of business that as much as any other was the defining feature of the Habsburg lands, and crucial to the culture of the city that would become Budapest. Kemnitzer’s was the progenitor of all the coffee houses in the golden age of Budapest and it became an instant success.

‘The nobility owns four-fifths of the land for which it does not pay any taxes, the rest of the…[6.25 million] inhabitants have no political rights and have to bear all the public burden.’

The Habsburgs created a new aristocracy in Hungary, but left an ancient version of feudalism in place and the nobles’ privileges intact. This was sound political sense and forged a settlement which helped to build a powerful layer of support for the Empire – an essential part of the ‘divide and rule’ policy that pacified Hungary. But in the long run it held back the development of the country by many generations.

Perhaps most harmful was the ancient system of land tenure under which estates were never owned by an individual lord but were entailed to the family and could only be inherited, not sold. This had a profound effect on the future, as it meant that only a very few of the biggest and richest owners could borrow money on their property, hindering investment needed to modernize farming.

On Christmas Day 1000 (though some accounts put the date as New Year’s Day 1001) Stephen had himself named King of Hungary, to differentiate his reign from the traditional title of chieftain, and his realm as a different kind of Christian state.

Stephen, who was canonized in 1083, half a century after his death, was responsible for ensuring that Hungary faced west rather than east.

Stephen brought order out of chaos, stability and the beginning of a legal code. He is, rightly, one of the most revered figures in Hungary’s history. He left a considerable literary legacy too: the Exhortations, written around 1015 as a guide to ethical kingship for his son Imre and other future rulers.

Latin would be the language of official and legal Hungary, as it would remain until the nineteenth century.

Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future too. Meditations, Marcus Aurelius (121–180)

Then the disaster of the First World War struck and Zweig’s World of Yesterday came to an end. Hungary has never recovered from the shock.

Around the 850s the tribes known as Magyar began entering the Carpathian basin.

During the nineteenth century Berlin and Budapest were the fastest- growing cities in Europe, and from the millennium year to the start of the First World War Budapest was the fastest-growing one.

This is a constant theme, as alive in the twenty-first century as in the nineteenth. Throughout history Hungary and its capital have been a significant part of Western Europe yet at the same time apart from it – a point made repeatedly now by contemporary Hungarians.

‘Throughout history we Hungarians – more often than not all alone – have stood as the bridge between East and West and we suffered as a result,’ he told a cheering crowd. ‘Repeatedly we have saved Western, Christian civilization from catastrophe and destruction by invaders from the East.’

A cursory look at a map shows why Budapest has always been an important place. It is close to Europe’s geometric centre; it is at the crossroads of geographical regions and of civilizations, at the intersection of ancient trade routes. Mountains that gradually slope into gentle hills converge on a great river, the Danube, and a vast plain.