Today, this Celtic culture remains robust only in Ireland, Scotland and Wales, where Celtic languages are still spoken. However, more than 2,000 years ago, the Celts controlled territories throughout Europe, from Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Great Britain in the west, to Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Slovenia and Croatia in the east. Although they never formed an empire, the Celts were united by a common language and culture.
In the late 5th century BC, Celtic tribes from Switzerland, Germany and the Czech Republic first became influential in what is now called Hungary, says András Tóth, archaeologist at the Aquincum Museum. Just over a century later, they dominated the land on which the current Hungarian capital was later built.
Mystery surrounds this first Celtic settlement in Budapest, which has not yet been unearthed, says Tóth. To date, the most important Celtic site discovered here is a large cemetery in at Csepel Island up to 2300 years old. From 2004 to 2006, excavations revealed bodies dressed in ornate clothing and buried with fine jewelry, weapons, and ceramics.
In the first century BC, Celtic villages dotted both sides of the Danube River, which divides Budapest, he explains. These communities developed a monetary system and were skilled in pottery, metallurgy, and agriculture. Its center was a fort in the Gellert Hillan elevated location that tourists visit today to enjoy expansive views of the city, inspect a 19th-century citadel, and enter the unique cave setting of St. Gellert Rock Church.
Celtic society reached its peak here in the early 1st century BC. Tourists can visit the Aquincum Museum to see coins from this era, as well as even older Celtic ceramics. Then came the Roman Empire, says Orsolya Láng, archaeologist and former director of the Aquincum Museum. The powerful and intimidating Romans are believed to have deposed the Celts with little or no bloodshed.
Aquincum began as a military outpost in the mid-1st century BC, and later became the Roman regional capital, before being abandoned in the 4th century AD “The life of the indigenous Celtic population did not cease: their language, customs, elements of “Their culture and the Celtic names of their settlements were preserved for many decades,” says Láng of the first Aquincum era.
Now, however, Hungary’s Celtic heritage has disappeared, says Krisztián Varga, who has studied Celtic history for 20 years and participates in the museum’s Samhain festival. It is largely the same, he says, in all the nations where the Celts flourished, except Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
“The survival of Celtic culture in the British Isles was greatly aided by a strong sense of identity, as the modern population considered themselves direct descendants (of the Celts),” he says. “The Eastern Celts, however, had a different history. Their culture gradually dissolved as they mixed with the local population,” he adds.
Two millennia later, Budapest’s strongest link to its Celtic era is the upcoming Samhain event. Now in its fifth year, this unique show aims not only to attract visitors to the Aquincum Museum, which sits anonymously in the city’s quiet northern suburbs. But also, to highlight the underrated impact of the Celts, whose pioneering efforts lay hidden beneath Budapest.
