Szatmári Gizella: Walks in the Castle District - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2001)
Hotel and the statue of Mercury by Makrisz Agamemnon (1981) at the corner of Szentháromság utca, the visitor can continue ambling along Országház utca. Walk Four HÜNYADI JÁNOS ÜT— SZENT GYÖRGY TÉR, THE ROYAL PALACE—TÓTH ÁRPÁD (BÁSTYA) SÉTÁNY—KAPISZTRÁN TÉR Hunyadi János street ascends the eastern slope of Castle Hill from the Víziváros to the Castle District. A statue of Hunyadi stands at a bend in the street (István Tóth, 1903). On orders issued by Pope Callixtus III, church bells are tolled at noon to this day in memory of Hunyadi’s great victory over the Ottoman forces at Nándorfehérvár (today Belgrade) in 1456. As we arrive at Dísz tér, the huge, derelict building to the left blocking out part of the palace complex, hardly allowing the contours of the dome to appear, is the former headquarters of the Defence Ministry and the Chief Army Commander. And yet it is worth heading in that direction. Where the small park is today, there once stood a small neo-Classical building connected to the Carmelite monastery next door. Until the end of the 19th century, the Royal Engineering Directorate was housed in the building. Later it was taken over as the Army Bishop’s headquarters. Severely damaged during World War II, it was demolished in 1951. Next to this was a Carmelite monastery and the Castle Theatre. During the Middle Ages the St. John Church of the Franciscans stood in the place of the theatre. Buried here were Andrew II in 1301, Archbishop János of Kalocsa in 1309 and Pelbárt Temesvári, a Franciscan preacher renowned for his sermon collections and Psalm commentaries who died in 1504. Like other churches in the Castle District this one, too, was caught up by destiny. Since the monastery was converted into the residence of Buda’s Turkish governor, the ecclesiastic building next door was referred to as Pasha Djami and used as a mosque. The edifice was 40
