Szablyár Péter: Sky-high - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2007)
Churches; Towers; Domes
After twenty-six years, this has again been opened to the public who can once again enjoy, under favourable weather conditions, a circular panorama comparable to that afforded by the Fishermen's Bastion. A symbol of Budapest — the towers of Matthias Church Szentháromság tér, District I The construction of the church in the castle district of Buda named for Our Lady was first mentioned in the 13th century when it served as the cathedral of the settlement founded by Béla IV. Its popular name, Matthias Church, refers to the fact that the great ruler Matthias held both of his weddings here. Under the Turks, the church was renamed Eski (Old) or Büyük (Great) Djami and was used as the main temple of the occupiers. After the liberation of Buda, it was owned first by the Franciscan, then the Jesuit order. During its reconstruction overseen by Frigyes Schulek, the high altar was moved to the garrison church; after the destruction of the latter by bombardment, the altarpiece and its accessories were taken to the Museum of Fine Arts (today it is held in the National Gallery). It was in this church that Francis Joseph and his consort Elizabeth were crowned in 1867 and so was Charles IV in 1916. The most popular and historically most weathered monument of Budapest received its present shape at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Initially only the belfry from Matthias’s period was to be reconstructed, as that was how Francis Joseph wished to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his rule as king of Hungary with an endowment made on the occasion. A committee of the periods' leading architects was set up to prepare a preliminary study. The eminent body (Imre Henszlmann, Frigyes Schulek, Imre Steindl, Hugó Máltás, and Frigyes Feszi) recommended that the tower be demolished and then restored to "the shape it had under King Matthias". It was clear by then that the rest of the church was also in need of an overhaul. Due to the fires it had survived, the sieges of the Castle Hill, and the earlier reconstruction jobs carried out with insufficient care and poor materials, the church was in critical condition in many of its parts. Frigyes Schulek aimed at the restoration of the sanctuary to its 13th century form, while on the rest of the church he wished to reconstruct a 14th century style. On the conclusion of the project the Board of Public 43
