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

tivity), a work recounting the experiences of his imprisonment between 1794 and 1801.

In 1835, the square was named Ferdinands-Platz after the monarch (marking the ascension to the throne of Ferdinand V in that year). In 1847 Ferdinand ordered the extension of the barracks, which had by then been renamed Palatine Barracks, and the square Palatine Square, obviously out of respect for the ruler (the Hungarian name was authorised in 1870). The museum, which became an independent institution in 1922, boasts a rich collection of arms, uniforms, flags and medals. In earlier times the relics—written documents as well as objects—of Hungary’s military past had been kept in the Heeresmuseum, Vienna, and various institutions within the country. The first independent exhibition put on here at the Kapisztrán tér location opened on 29 May 1937.

Opposite the entrance to the institute rises the buttressed tower of the 13th century Church of St. Mary Magdalene, featuring Gothic vaulted windows. Commissioned by Béla IV for the Franciscan order in 1274, the building was once the parish church of the

The Magdalene Tower

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