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

The statue of St. John Capistranus outside the Military History Institute and Museum (József Damkó)

became a Franciscan friar and proclaimed a crusade against the Ottoman empire in 1455 in Hungary. He took part in the liberation of Nándorfehérvár on the side of János Hunyadi and it was in that city that the plague killed him soon after the death of his friend, the heroic scourge of the Turks. His statue, the work of József Damkó, has stood in the square since 1922. What rendered its instalment a timely gesture was a dual anniversary: it was 700 years previously that the Franciscan order was established in Hungary and 465 since the death of Kapisztrán himself.

The square behind the statue is bordered by the L- shaped block of the Military History Institute and Museum. The spot outside the main entrance to the museum affords a magnificent view of the Buda hills. The 17th and 18th century cannons on the bastion recall the battles of yore.

The former Barracks of the Grenadiers here was built above medieval walls between 1686 and 1696. Kazinczy makes frequent mention of it as “The Guards’ House” in his Fogságom naplója (Journal of my Cap54