Margaret Island - Global Citizenship Summer School (sitios de interés)

Margaret Island is located in the middle of the Danube flowing through the Hungarian capital, Budapest. The men who were the first to settle on the island were the memebrs of the order of Saint John who arrived there in the twelth century. Yet, they were not the only ones to dwell there as the members of various religious orders were also the residents of the Margaret Island. Nowadays, we can admire ruins of the Premonaterian church as well as of the remnants of the Franciscan church and Dominician church and convent. They came from twelth anf thirteenth century respectively. Apart from that, another group of sttlers in the Margaret Island were the members of the Augustinian order. Presence of nunneries, churches and cloisters was the prevalent feature of the Island up until the sixteenth century when the vast part of Hungary was conquered by the Ottomans. Their eventual military success brought about the destruction of the sacral buildings. The monks and the nuns living hitherto on the island fled. In the eighteenth century after the subjection of Hungary to the Habsburg Monarchy, the island became the resort for the palatines. Later on, it became a public garden in 1908. Nowadays, the island serves mostly recreational purposes. The island was called in the Middle Ages by the name 'Nyulak szigete' which means 'Island of the Rabbits.' It was remained later on after Saint Margaret (1242–1270).