Happy TravellerWelcome to Dunaújváros, a city with a rich industrial history located in Fejér County, Central Hungary. Situated 70 kilometers south of Budapest on the Danube, Dunaújváros is best known for its steelworks, which is the largest in the country. Originally named Sztálinváros, the city was built in the 1950s on the site of the former village of Dunapentele. Today, Dunaújváros is a bustling city with a population of over 50,000 and is home to many new infrastructures, including the new South Korean Hankook factory, Europe’s biggest tire factory of Hankook, and Hamburger Hungaria, one of the largest containerboard manufacturers in Europe.
Dunaújváros is located in the Transdanubian part of the Great Hungarian Plain, 70 kilometers south of Budapest on the Danube, Highway 6, Motorways M6, M8 and the electrified Budapest-Pusztaszabolcs-Dunaújváros-Paks railway. The city replaced the village of Dunapentele, named after Saint Pantaleon. The construction of this new industrial city started in 1949 and the original village was renamed Sztálinváros (Stalin City) in 1951. After the Hungarian revolution of 1956, the new government renamed the city the neutral Dunaújváros in 1961, which means Danube New City (New City on the Danube).
Dunaújváros is one of the newest cities in the country, built in the 1950s during the industrialization of the country under Socialist rule, as a new city next to an already existing village, Dunapentele. The metal works (formerly called: Dunai Vasmű, now ISD DUNAFERR) were opened in 1954. The city had a population of 27,772 at this time; 85% of them lived in nice, comfortable apartments, while about 4,200 people still lived in uncomfortable barracks which originally provided homes for the construction workers. In the middle of the 1950s, public transport was organized, with buses carrying 24,000 passengers each day. During the 1950s many cultural and sports facilities were built, the Endre Ságvári Primary School being the largest school in Central Europe in the 1960s.
Thanks to the inspiration of Bauhaus, the buildings and monuments of this era (1949–56), like the forge, the cinema, the theatre, the hospital, and the city’s schools were characterized by a structural functionalism, but the ideological function resulted in classicist decorations, like columns, tympanums, and arcades, because of which the informal name of the style became Stalin’s Baroque. There are several public statues and reliefs in the town, which represent the allegoric union of workers, peasants, and intellectuals, surrounded by traditional folk motifs.
Today, Dunaújváros is home to many new infrastructures, including the new South Korean Hankook factory, Europe’s biggest tire factory of Hankook, and Hamburger Hungaria, one of the largest containerboard manufacturers in Europe. This and other projects make Dunaújváros a new Hungarian boomtown. Thanks to its formal political and economic importance, the communist urban design, the socialist realist architecture, and its unique atmosphere, the town is a considerable memento of communism. Many of the half-century-old buildings have received the protection of historic monuments, and the town is in the focus of growing touristic interest.
The most popular sport in Dunaújváros is ice hockey, and the city is home to the Steel Bulls (which plays at the Ice Hockey Stadium of Dunaújváros). The second most popular sport in the town is football. The town has one team playing in the top-level league, the Nemzeti Bajnokság I, the Dunaújváros PASE. However, the most well-known team is the defunct Dunaújváros FC which also won the 1999–2000 Nemzeti Bajnokság I season. The women’s water polo team of Dunaújvárosi FVE won the 2018 edition of the LEN Trophy.
Dunaújváros is twinned with several cities, including Neustadt an der Donau in Germany and Pantelija in Serbia. Whether you’re interested in history, architecture, or sports, Dunaújváros has something for everyone. Come and discover this hidden gem in the heart of Hungary!
