Az Osztrák–Magyar Monarchia és az Oszmán Birodalom közötti vasúti összeköttetés létrejötte
Establishing a Railway Link between Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire

Summary/Abstract: Reshaped by the Berlin Congress and the treaty of San Stefano of 1878, which ended the Russian–Turkish war, the Balkans did not have a railway link with Europe at the time. This also meant that the railway system that had already been set up beforehand was not linked to the “Old Continent”. The Monarchy (and Hungary) used all its powers to establish a railway connection between the western part of Europe and the Balkans. First, Gyula Andrássy, the Monarchy’s minister of foreign affairs, achieved some success after lengthy negotiations: the Turkish government agreed to establish a railway link through the Monarchy (Hungary). The final breakthrough came after the Congress of Berlin in 1878, where decision was taken about the construction of further railway lines in the Balkans. After signing a contract with Hungary, the Serbian government committed itself to building a railway line from Belgrade to Nis, which was to connect also to Constantinople through Sofia. The Hungarian parliament passed law No. XLII. in 1880 that entitled the government to establish a railway line between Budapest and Zemun. They intended to link Belgrade, the gate of the Balkans, to the European network this way. It was such a significant project that the preliminary ruling procedure attracted international attention and many newspapers reported on it. Finally, railway services to Zemun started in June 1883. The first engine arrived to the Bulgarian–Serbian border from the direction of Sofia in the summer of 1888, by which time the link to Constantinople had been established.

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