Budapest Xperience

Despite the strong emphasis on the middle line, the impressive tripartite west facade is dominated by the five-storied Matthias bell tower. This gives the impression that architectural structures are becoming the more monumental as we look from the short, turreted Béla tower through the ornamented central area and to the south tower.

The huge Gothic rosette on the second floor had been covered with a wall in the Baroque ages, and was only revealed during the major reconstruction by Frigyes Schulek in the end of the 19th century: he managed to reconstruct the original shapes of the stone grid from the fractions found.

The third floor is topped with a triangular Neo-Gothic battlement decorated with peak-arches. Under these you can see the main ornament of the west facade: the peak-arched, deep western gate structure. Its embrasure has four clustered columns with column heads decorated with grape leaf designs. The innermost column head in the north, and the innermost but one in the south side are from the 13th century, the rest are identical duplicates carved in the 19th century. In the peak-arch area above the gate there is an embossing of Mary, Lady of Hungarians, made of Zsolnay pyrogranite.

Saint Steven founded the first Church of Mary. The related tradition, which was generally accepted until the 20th century, was public belief in the Middle Ages. After the period of Turkish rule, the church was known as the Church of Saint Steven, and the 900th anniversary of its foundation was celebrated in 1915. Although researchers now admit that there had been a village on the Castle Hill before the Mongolian invasion, we now have no material evidence for the existence of the Buda Castle Church of Mary before 1247.

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