Hajógyári Island
Hajógyári Island or Óbudai-sziget is the largest Danubian island in Budapest. Located in District III, it is a popular recreational area, year round. It is the home of the international Sziget Festival every August.
Location and geography
Hajógyári was created from debris carried by the Danube River. It was originally a reef island made up of two adjoining land masses. Buda's coast is located between the river markers of 1651 and 1654 kilometers. It has an area of 108 hectares, a length of 2750 meters, and a maximum width of 500 meters, which is directly in line with the 1653-kilometer river marker. Obuda Island is separated by a 70- to 80-meter wide branch of the Danube. Not far from the northern end of the Újpest railway bridge, the southern end of the Árpád Bridge connects Buda and Pest.History
Early period
Originally known as Aquincum, by AD 89 it was home to a Roman legion of 6,000 men. A city grew around their fortress and became the capital of Pannonia Inferior in 106. By the end of the 2nd century, the population had reached 40,000. After 409, the Romans abandoned the area. A thousand years later, in the time of King Matthias Corvinus, it was a wooded hunting preserve, although many Romans ruins remained. In the 17th century, ownership passed to the Zichy family.19th century
Its importance grew again in the 19th century, when Count István Széchenyi established the Óbuda Shipyard. The first ship built there, the Árpád-steamboat, was launched in 1836. It became the first industrial scale steamship building company in the Habsburg Empire. Roman perimeter walls were first found in 1836, when the Otter Bay dredges deepened the shipyard.Twenty-eight hectares of the island's area were occupied by the shipyard. The remainder of the island was converted to agricultural use. For a long time, access to the island was by ferry only. The first permanent bridge was built in 1858 after a pedestrian bridge had been constructed.
20th century
Around the 1900s Hajógyári was called the "Big Island". It got the nickname Shipyard Island because it was once the southern end of the Óbuda Shipyard. Industrial activity in these buildings ended and moved to different companies. The island's port is operated by the Yacht Club of Hungary. The former shipyard area was found at Hadrian's Aquincum of the Roman governor's palace, which was uncovered and presented to wait.Carrot farms were still there as late as 1960. In 1967, the current reinforced concrete bridge was built. In 1973, for the centennial of the Óbuda-Pest-Buda union, "May the 9th Park" was created, requiring the use of of soil. The park contained many playgrounds, which were burned down in 1999 and replaced in 2004. The six tennis courts are currently in a state of disrepair.