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

LOUIS XVI STYLE GATE WITH FESTOON-ORNAMENTATION

(No. 5 Országház utca)

mer proprietor, municipal surgeon Károly Mócsy, can be seen. The proud owner had the escutcheon carved in 1802 when he was elevated to the rank of nobleman by the monarch.

The bronze relief on the building at No. 9 Országház utca is the work of Serbian artist Nebojsa Mitric and was donated by Belgrade to Budapest in 1987. It commemorates the Serbian Tsar Stepan Lazarevic, who was an ally of King Sigismund of Hungary and, due to the king’s generosity, the proprietor of the house. (One episode in the history of this friendly alliance is the subject of the poem Szibinyáni Jank by János Arany.)

In its present-day form, the building at No. 7 is characterised by neo-Classical style. According to some sources, it was here that the royal gold mint operated from the period of the Anjous to the reign of Sigismund of Luxembourg.

The building at No. 2 has retained for posterity a Gothic arcade resting on octagonal pillars. Its 18th century builder (1758) and owner was Xavér Ferenc Christen, Surgeon General of Buda. There are three joint vaulted sedilia in the gateway featuring stonemason’s marks reminiscent of ancient runes, used by the mas26