The turn of the century—the illustrious fin-de-siècle—was a heady time for Hungarians. Created in 1873, the city of Budapest brought together the previously separate communities of Buda, Obuda, and Pest, quickly becoming a cosmopolitan national capital. Home not just to Hungarians (usually called Magyars), it attracted people from across Europe, and grew in wealth and power, to become a full, named partner in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1896, Budapest became the first city on the continent to open an underground rail system, beating the Paris Metropolitan by four years. Europe’s largest parliament building rose from the banks of the blue Danube, its grand domes and spires still gracing that river to this day….