Szatmári Gizella: Signs of Remembrance - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2005)
in the court of the prince where he might have met his would-be father- in-law for the first time. János Arany’s popular ballad "Szibinyáni Jank" does more than sing the valour of the page hunting for wolves: it also paints a vivid picture of the daily life lived and the festive occasions celebrated in medieval courts. The following lines give a precise indication of the prince’s dignified position: "Precious guest in Serbian land / King Sigismund Emperor / Entertained by Despot István / Prince Lázár his begetter: / Seven days of wine and band / Are offered free and bountiful / Lest they forget who is host and / Who is hosted, where they rule. The Matthias Memorial of Bautzen The Hilton Hotel in the Castle District was raised over the ruins of the Dominican Church of St. Nicholas (1248-1252). The remnants of walls, the surviving buttresses of the sacristy, the Gothic ambulatory and the gate, a few tombstones and a well from Matthias's time decorated with an escutcheon are open to the public. The 15th-century tower of the cloister survives, complete with a late Gothic window topped by a curtain arch. It was here that a replica of the Matthias monument of Bautzen was placed. The original of the relief-decorated plaque was made in i486, when Matthias took, as King.of Bohemia, the most important settlement of Lausitz province, the city of Bautzen, and proceeded to restore and fortify the strategically positioned Castle of Ortenburg. His governor,' the knight György Stein, had a slightly larger than life- size statue made of the king for the gatehouse of the castle. According to the historian Vilmos Fraknói, the Silesian master aspired to create a faithful likeness of the king's physiognomy. After several false starts the artist travelled to Buda where he managed to produce a sufficiently true-to-life portrait. The monarch sits on the throne inside a Gothic lancet niche. Looking into the distance, his eyes radiate dignified calm and strength as he rests his feet on a lion, a gesture suggesting power. His crown is held above his hand by a group of angels, one.of whom raises a drawn sword as if warning the enemy that he stood no chance whatsoever in the face of one divinely protected. The instalment of the statue is bound up with the history of the social organisations formed by the citizenry of Buda. With the participation of writers, 7
