The Country
Hungary is situated in the Carpathian Basin with neighbouring countries: Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia. Administratively, Hungary is divided into 19 counties with the capital city of Budapest being independent of any county government.
Hungary is among the top tourist destinations in Europe with the capital Budapest regarded as one of the most famous capitals in Europe. Hungary has the second largest thermal lake in the world (Lake Hévíz), the largest lake in Central Europe (Lake Balaton), and the largest natural grassland in Europe (Hortobágy).
The Magyars, an alliance of semi-nomadic tribes from southern Russia and the Black Sea coast began to seize territories in the ninth century. After centuries as a powerful medieval kingdom, Hungary was part of the Ottoman and then Habsburg empires from the 16th century onwards, emerging as an independent country again after the First World War.
After the Second World War, it spent decades under Communist rule, but in May 1989 the Hungarian Republic was proclaimed and in March 1990 the first democratic, general elections were held. At last, Hungary became a free, democratic, European republic. In 1999 it joined NATO and from 2004 it is a member of the EU.