Szatmári Gizella: Walks in the Castle District - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2001)
The Triumphal Arc raised in 1741 to commemorate the birth of Joseph II was also Landtrachtinger’s work. (The celebrations began with a volley and continued with a procession, during which the fountains outside the Town Hall sprouted red and white wine for the delectation of the people...) Walk Two PETERMANN BÍRÓ ÜTCA— ORSZÁGHÁZ GTCA—SZENTHÁROMSÁG ÜTCA—AND BACK ALONG ÚRI ÜTCA From Bécsi kapu tér we can walk past the building of the Hungarian National Archives. The small street named after Magistrate Petermann commemorates a curious episode in the history of medieval Buda. Around 1302, when dynastic conflicts between the pretender Wenceslas III and Charles Robert of Anjou broke out, the papal legate Cardinal Nicholas Boccasini supported the claim of the latter. For siding with his opponent, the Cardinal excommunicated the recalcitrant citizenry of Buda, whereupon the clergy of Buda proceeded to excommunicate the legate! Ironically in view of this, Boccasini was elected pope himself the following year, taking the title Benedict XL It was during these turbulent times that Petermann served as Town Magistrate. Incidentally, the street bore the name Vér, or Blood, for a while after the recapture of Buda from the Turks in 1686, in reference to the gory battles waged here. Having reached Kapisztrán tér, we continue our walk along Országház utca. Every building in this street contains fragments of Gothic walls, sedilia and, in some of the courtyards, Gothic arcs were walled in by the builders of the Baroque period. In places even patches of the original paint survived the Turkish occupation and the destruction brought by World War II. Right at the start, at eye level on the very first building (on the corner of Kapisztrán tér and Országház utca) there is a small coloured stone figure. Designed by sculptor Miklós Melocco in 1977, the sign of the street, whose name Országház (Parliament) is under protection, is sunk into the wall—or else is trying to break out 22
