Ságvári Ágnes (szerk.): Budapest. The History of a Capital (Budapest, 1975)
The Medieval Sister Cities
the German name of Buda, Ofen, which is the literal translation of the name Pest (oven, stove). The whole population of Pest, however, did not move to Buda; some of them remained in Pest, where they were governed by the mayor appointed by the Buda Council. The new city was established on the Buda plateau which is an elongated narrow triangle in shape, later called Castle Hill. Fortifications were built round the edge of the plateau. Although the council officially called itself the Pestújhely (New Pest Hill) Castle Council up to the end of the Middle Ages, the city has nevertheless been generally known as Buda from its foundation, since the area had originally belonged to the Buda estate. The government of the city was taken over by the council and citizens of Castle Hill (Várhegy). This is important, because the new city included, on the one hand, Pest Minor, which from the fourteenth century on was often called Alhévíz(Lower Hot Springs) to be distinguished from Felhévíz (Upper Hot Springs), and on the other the southern part of Felhévíz, i.e. the area between Castle Hill and the Danube, and was probably a centre of the queen’s dower estate. The new city had both defensive and economic requirements to satisfy, and this was shown also in its deliberate development. The entire plateau had to be surrounded by a wall; the king’s castle was built on the narrowing lowest corner on the south, the section of the plateau most difficult to defend. It formed a defensive unit with the town against attack from without, but it was otherwise separated from the burgher districts. The streets of the Castle District were deliberately designed and adjusted to the edges of the plateau. The township on Castle Hill had two market places. One was in the northern part of the hill, where a church named after Mary Magdalene was built somewhen between 1250 and 1260. The weekly markets were held here on Saturdays, and consequently the settlement was called Szombathely (locus fori sabbati, Sabbath Place), and the northern gate in the corner of the square Szombatkapu (Sabbath Gate). (Kapisztrán and Bécsikapu Squares today.) Originally—that is, in the first half of the fourteenth century—this was the main market place of the city, and the toll was collected at the Szombatkapu, through a toll-gate. The other market was a street market in the centre of the city, tapered off towards the south; at its southern end the other two gates of the city faced each other. Here the markets were held on Tuesdays until the second half of the fourteenth century, and then on Wednesdays. The Town Hall which stood in this square, presumably the newer one, looked over two streets. It is today a museum in Szentháromság utca (Trinity Street). In the fourteenth century a church named after Saint George was built in this square, which gave the market the name of Szent György (Saint George) Market. (The area south of what is today Dísz tér.) Towards the end of the Middle Ages the northern half of the square was built up with smaller houses, originally market booths. This market was the political and business centre of the city, and the wealthiest burghers and merchants lived here. The administrative and ecclesiastical divisions of the city were closely connected. Before 1241 Alhévíz, the original Pest Minor, was already an independent parish with its own church, and before the Mongol invasion Castle Hill, and the area between Castle Hill and the Danube—with perhaps the exception of the southern part of Castle Hill—was probably part of the parish of Felhévíz Trinity Church. When the separation took place, the Church of Our Lady on the eastern side of Castle Hill, a little to the east of the north-eastern corner of Saint George Market, became the new parish church. Its priests were elected, under the clauses of the 1244 Golden Bull, by the burghers of Buda, and the church later fulfilled 14
