Budapest and her sisters formed the 1st Capital Ship Division of the Austro-Hungarian Navy until they were replaced by the newly commissioned Habsburg-class pre-dreadnought battleships at the turn of the century.

At only 5,785 tonnes (5,694 long tons) maximum displacement,[1] the Monarch class was less than half the size of the battleships of other major navies at the time[2] and were officially designated as coast defense ships.

Budapest's maximum load of 500 metric tons (490 LT) of coal gave her a range of 3,500 nautical miles (6,500 km; 4,000 mi) at a speed of 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph).

[4] The armament of the Monarch class consisted of four 240-millimeter (9.4 in) Krupp K/94 guns mounted in two twin-gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure.

[7] The Monarch-class ships were ordered in May 1892[8] with Budapest and Wien to be built at the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino shipyard in Trieste.

In early 1902 they made another training cruise to the Western Mediterranean with port visits in Algeria, Spain, France, Italy, Corfu, and Albania.

They were sent to the Bay of Kotor in August 1914 to attack Montenegrin artillery batteries on Mount Lovćen bombarding the Austro-Hungarian naval base at Cattaro and the fortifications defending it.

When the Austro-Hungarian army was finally able to launch an offensive into Montenegro in January 1916, SMS Budapest was on hand to assist the ground troops against Lovćen's defences.

In order for its guns to elevate high enough to hit the Montenegrin lines at the top of the mountain Budapest had to be trimmed 7 degrees.

The naval bombardment played a decisive role in breaking the morale of the mountain's defenders and Montenegro requested an armistice two days later.

The armoured cruiser SMS Sanct George with two destroyers and four torpedo-boats under Kontra-Admiral Alexander Hansa headed off to support the beleaguered Austrian force.

[6] Anxious to revenge themselves against the Austro-Hungarians, the Royal Italian Navy (Regia Marina) planned an attack on the two ships in their berths in the Bay of Muggia, near Trieste, by MAS boats.

[17] On the night of 9/10 December, two MAS boats managed to penetrate the harbor defenses undetected, and fired torpedoes at Wien and Budapest.

The torpedoes fired at the Budapest struck the mole of the seaplane station,[6] but Wien was hit twice and capsized in five minutes, killing 46 of the crew.

Escorted by the light cruiser Admiral Spaun, six destroyers, nine torpedo boats and a dozen minesweepers, Budapest and the pre-dreadnought Árpád bombarded the Castellazzo fortifications on 19 December.

Just over a week later, Admiral Franz von Keil proposed that a 38-centimeter siege howitzer be installed to bombard the Castellazzo fortifications.