Budapest is south-east of Vienna, south of Warsaw, south-west of Moscow, north of Athens, north-east of Milan, and south-east of Prague. The area of Budapest lies in Central Hungary, surrounded by settlements of the agglomeration in Pest county. The capital extends in the north-south, east-west direction respectively. The Danube enters the city from the north; later it encircles two islands, Óbuda Island and Margaret Island. The third island Csepel Island is the largest of the Budapest Danube islands, however only its northernmost tip is within city limits. The river that separates the two parts of the city is wide at its
Budapest movement to the neighbouring agglomeration in Pest county, i.e., suburbanisation. In the last decades of the 20th century the political changes of 1989–90 (Fall of the Iron Curtain) concealed changes in civil society and along the streets of Budapest. The monuments of the dictatorship were removed from public places, into Memento Park. In the first 20 years of the new democracy, the development of the city was managed by its mayor, Gábor Demszky. Budapest, strategically placed at the centre of the Carpathian Basin, lies on an ancient route linking the hills of Transdanubia with the Great Plain. By road it