Faurest, Kristin: Ten spaces - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2010)

Mátyás tér

change the fabric of the district, which was populated from the 1720s and had consisted mostly of single-storey houses. After the flood most of these were replaced by multi-storeyed blocks of flats. Józsefváros underwent extremely rapid development in the late 19th century - at the turn of the 20th century the district already had almost 135,000 residents whereas as recently as 1869 they had numbered only 41,831. The buildings surrounding the square come from nearly every phase and style of the last century and a half. On the corner of Erdélyi utca, it was until recently still possible to see the faded paint of a sign designating it a glazier's warehouse owned by Károly Bielek. At number 4 - the corner of Tavaszmező utca, the imposing, elegant Magda Courtyard with its extravagant, pressed metal bay windows and figurative ornamentation makes by far the most striking architectural presence on the square. Built in 1911—12, the building originally had five storeys but had an additional one added to it in the 1960s. The Mátyás Cinema, one of 18 moving picture houses in Józsefváros, operated here from shortly after the building was completed until it — like so many other small neighbourhood movie houses - was closed down. Near the Magda Courtyard

■ Mátyáh tér, photo dated fjrom 1973

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