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

return from an exile of a few years around 1360, the Jews settled around the northern end of today’s Táncsics Mihály utca. The street then bore the German name of Juden Gasse.

Archaeological excavations uncovered the so-called greater (or new) Buda synagogue, built in 1461, on the plot of the former Zichy (and even earlier, Al- mássy) house at No. 23 Táncsics Mihály utca. (Mainly for financial considerations, the find was regrettably reburied in 1965.) The lesser (or old) synagogue stood where No. 26 is now. The Medieval Jewish Prayer House here presents the life of Buda’s Jewry in the Middle Ages with the help of documentary and archaeological evidence, as well as the carved stone ornaments of the Greater Synagogue. Also of interest is that walled in, inside the courtyard, there were inscribed columns belonging to the rich collection of the first proprietor’s family. This consisted mainly of Roman finds, while the garden boasted Baroque statues of Hercules and Ceres, which were brought here from the Invalids’ House (today’s City Hall) in Pest.

The faqade of the neighbouring building at No. 21 was decorated with reliefs of Classical Roman origin (earlier the house shared the same front with No. 23). When the house changed ownership in 1869, the famous architect Miklós Ybl made alterations to the interior.

Placed between Louis XVI festoons, a Turkish head

Gate with a Turkish head (No. 24 Táncsics Mihály utca)

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