What do you remember about Budapest? The wonderful lights, the Parliament, the Danube, Váci street or the party district? Probably all of them. But what you probably don't know when you think of the Hungarian capital is that were cave homes carved in the hillside and the inhumane conditions in them. Some people lived like this even in the middle of the last century. But let's start at the beginning.

These cave homes were created during the Turkish rule, as the Turks considered it a very practical solution for storing wine - rightly so. Next to the large storage hole for the wines, they usually carved a smaller hole for the winegrower, and his family. They were the first people who moved into these flats. As limestone was a very good raw material in the construction industry, once all wine had their cellar, the mining did not stop. By this time, the limestone was already mined directly to obtain a pit that could be converted into a home. The quarrying workers moved in, and soon the rock homes were given or bought as normal houses on the market. It's almost unbelievable, but by the mid-1800s, 3,000 people were living in such homes, according to szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu.

By this time, a few housing estates had grown out of these flats: it was not uncommon that a larger foreground or yard opened to several flats, which seemed to be very practical. Once these holes had been dug out, there was hardly any things to do, most of the time the wall was painted white and a door was inserted and it was habitable. Not surprisingly, these cave homes were the solution for the poorest people, as they could be rented at very reasonable prices.

By the turn of the 20th century, more and more people were aware of the disadvantages:, it was reported around 1910 that these homes were unsuitable for human life. Due to their low cost, it has become a gathering place for very poor families with many children, and it was not uncommon that 8-10 people lived in a 5-6 square meters apartment. As many windows could not be built and the sewerage could not be done either, it's not difficult to imagine what unhealthy conditions people were living in here. Outbreaks such as dysentery, typhoid fever, cholera, and even leprosy have appeared in these colonies. In addition, due to the almost complete absence of sunlight, rickets causing distortion of the body were very common.

Nevertheless, these homes were inhabited until the 1960s, with one of the last occupants moving out in 1971. Fortepan has a nice collection of these pictures, it's worth browsing, if you want to see these circumstances!