Ságvári Ágnes (szerk.): Budapest. The History of a Capital (Budapest, 1975)
The Medieval Sister Cities
the role of the parish church of the German inhabitants. The Mary Magdalene Churche, we repeat, was built on the north of the plateau between 1250 and 1260, and around the same time the church of Saint Peter the Martyr was built in the outlying district between Castle Hill and the Danube. Both were parochial churches, both were built by the Hungarians in the outlying districts, and both paid a nominal rent to the original mother church, the Church of Our Lady, in the area of which they were built. It appears from later lawsuits among the three parishes that the jurisdiction of these two parishes did not originally extend to a specific area but to congregations, at that time the Hungarians (and apparently the Slavs). But from the second half of the fourteenth century onwards, it no longer depended on the personal status of the parishioners, and it became necessary to demarcate the parish bounds. The areas inhabited by the Hungarians on Castle Hill became part of the Mary Magdalene Parish and the German-inhabited areas went to the parish of the Church of Our Lady, i.e. the northern third became a Hungarian parish, and the central third the German; the southern part of the plateau, the two streets leading from Saint George Market to the Royal Palace remained in dispute, and were finally added to the German parish. In 1441 these boundaries were confirmed, and later the outlying districts were also divided. Apparently, however, this territorial subdivision did not correspond to the nationalities of the inhabitants at the time of the foundation. For the early period at least there is a considerable amount of information available concerning houses belonging to the Germans —several of them leading citizens—in the northern as well as in the central part. It is certain that the Hungarians originally lived alongside Germans in the northern part of the plateau, and exclusively in the southern part, in the section facing the Royal Palace. The name and location of Szombatpiac (Sabbath Market) implies an earlier market place in the district, where Hungarians may have already lived before the foundation of the city. This market merged into the new town, and a church was built originally for the Hungarians living in the neighbourhood. But the most valuable sites around the market fell into the hands of Germans. Later, after the northern third had become Magyarized, the leading German burghers of the city developed the Saint George Market. On the north-eastern edge of Castle Hill, originally a mansion called the Kammerhof stood, serving as the administrative centre of the queen’s estates. Not far from it, at the time of the foundation of the city, was built the Dominican Monastery of Saint Nicholas (Szent Miklós); and here a great college of the Order was already in existence as early as 1254. The other monastery on Castle Hill belonged to the Franciscans, and this was built between 1260 and 1270 near the Royal Palace. The original street of the Jews was also situated facing the Royal Palace, but was moved between 1360 and 1370 to the northern part of the city. The suburb between Castle Hill and the Danube was already in existence at the time of the foundation of Buda. The northern part, near the Danube, was called Szent Péter after the parish church of Saint Peter. The Saint Stephen (Szent István) Monastery of the Augustines was built south of it around 1270 and the district was named accordingly, while the hillside rising behind it was called Szentmihály (Saint Michael) after the cemetery chapel of the Church of Our Lady. In 1441 the hillside suburbs (Szentistván and Szentmihály) were joined to the parish of the Church of Our Lady. On the hillside to the north of the plateau the suburbs of Tótfalu (Slovak Village) came into being, and in the second half of 15
