Margit-sziget, Budapest

Margit-sziget is an island in the Danube, set within Budapest. It extends for 2.5 km and reaches 500 m across, with landscape parks covering most of its area. That makes this a recreational island, but its older identity remains visible in the medieval ruins of churches and religious houses, reminders of its importance as a religious centre.

Before the 14th century, people knew it as Insula leporum, or the Island of Rabbits. Its present form emerged when the Festő, Fürdő and Nyulak islands were joined near the end of the 19th century to regulate the river's flow. The island takes its current name from Saint Margaret, the daughter of Béla IV of Hungary.

She lived here in a Dominican convent, binding the island's name to the religious history preserved in its ruins. Look for the paths, lawns and mature planting around you: they belong to a landscape shaped as both public park and historical site. The water, the greenery and the surviving masonry make the island's character unusually layered.