Szatmári Gizella: Walks in the Castle District - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2001)

Gothic ledge with trefoil-arc (No. 20 Országház utca)

cony can compensate the visitor with its Renaissance sgraffito—plaster of two colours with ornamentation scratched into the upper section.

No. 23 was built for a locksmith, Ferenc Orlics, in 1816. Above the three-centred arch of the gate at No. 20 is the date 1771. The proprietor János Nicki, a butcher whose initials appear on the keystone next to the date, could claim to own the most richly decorated fapade. The ledge supporting the upper floor with its series of trefoil-arc decoration is a unique feature of the Castle District. The sedilia in the gateway are of a similar design. A literary curiosity is that it was here that the periodical Budapest was edited by the writer Lajos Mesterházi between 1966 and 1979. Regrettably, publication of this fine journal specialising in urban history and monument protection has since been discontinued.

No. 17 Országház utca was once the home of master baker Bernát Spiegel. To this day the keystone features a croissant as a trademark of sorts. (For decades the street itself was called Sütő utca, meaning oven or bakery street.) Carved into the rock in part, the largest vaulted medieval cellar of the Castle District lies underneath the building.

24