Matyas Templom

Hi There!

Last week I walked up to the Castle again and this time I visit St. Matthew's Church, otherwise known as the Matyas Templom, or the Painted Church. It's a really neat building and I wanted to share the pictures I took of that day.

When walking to the Castle District from my apartment you can cross the Szechenyi Chain Bridge and take the funicular to Castle Hill, or, after crossing the bridge, you can walk up some stairs built into the hillside to get to Castle Hill.

On Thursday I climbed the stairs. It's fall now, and the hillside is covered with horse chestnut trees and their yellowing leaves. The nuts were all over the ground, reminding me of childhood. I had never seen a horse chestnut tree until we moved to Germany and I came to dearly love playing with those shiny brown nuts. When we moved to PA they had them there.

Here are some pictures of the hillside climb.

Path to Buda Castle Hill

View from Stairs to Buda Castle Hill

Light at Top of Castle Hill Stairs

When you reach the top of the stairs if you are facing away from the Danube the Castle is on your left and the Castle District neighborhood, including Matyas Templom and the Fisherman's Bastion are on your right.

As you walk toward the Templom you pass this mural of the Magyar troops on horseback.

Mural on Castle Hill

Mural of Magyar Horsemen on Castle Hill

As you approach the old houses you can see bullet holes in many of the buildings. There was fighting in this district during WWII which is where these bullet holes come from.

Bullet Holes 

I came upon this statue but I don't know the significance of it. I will research it and update this blog after I found out.

Statue in Square in Castle District

Closeup of Wreath and Quill on Statue in Castle District

Closeup of Figures

There is a pretty fountain on the hill which I got a good shot of.

Fountain on Castle Hill

I took some pictures of some architectural features and statues on a door. One day I'm going to do nothing but take pictures of details over doors and windows and blog it. Budapest is so full of such details you could just walk around forever and look at nothing but these little features.

Details of Window in Castle District

Statue over Doorway in Castle District

There is a religious statue in the square in front of the Church. Here are some shots.

Statue in Front of Matyas Templom

Closeup of Statue in Front of Templom

And finally here are some pictures of the church itself, Matyas Templom. It's a beautiful church. It's known as the painted church because the interior is entirely covered in paint. It's gorgeous on the outside too. I love the rooftop tiles.

Matyas Templom

Another View of Matyas Templom

Roof of Matyas Templom with Colored Tiles

Roof at Back of Matyas Templom

Here are some pictures of the door and the rose window.

Wooden Doors of Church 

Arched Doorway of Matyas Templom

Painted Lunette over Door of Matyas Templom

Rose Window

Once inside, the church is very dark, with beautiful stained glass windows and painted walls, columns, and ceiling. Due to the darkness and the crowds my shots of the inside are limited.

Chapel Altarpiece in Matyas Templom 

Top of Altarpiece

The entire inside of the church is painted. This motif of the raven holding a ring in his mouth is repeated throughout the Church and also in other places around the castle. It is part of King Matyas's coat of arms but I have yet to determine the significance.

Raven Painting on Walls of Matyas Templom

Closeup of Raven

Wall Painting of Knight inside Templom

Painted Lunette inside Templom

Painted Column

I also took some pictures of the little chapel inside the Church.

Chapel Inside Matyas Templom

Altarpiece in Chapel

Here are some pictures taken of the back of the Church, and also some taken from the Fisherman's Bastion.

Apse of Matyas Templom 

Back of Church

Matyas Templom from Atop Fisherman's Bastion

Templom from Inside Fisherman's Bastion

The Fisherman's Bastion is next to Matyas Templom. Built in the Medieval style, this structure was only built in the late 1800 and finished in the early 1900's. It is a terrace of seven towers flanking the hill on which Matyas Templom sits, overlooking the Danube. The seven towers represent the seven Magyar Tribes that settled the Carpathian Basin. The structure is named after the guild of fisherman who was responsible for defending this stretch of the city walls in Medieval times.

Here is a picture of the city in those days.

Castle Hill in Medieval Times

It's a beautiful structure, and you can see all of Pest and half of Buda from its walls.

Fisherman's Bastion

Entrance to Fisherman's Bastion

One of the Bastion Towers 

Towers of the Fisherman's Bastion on Castle Hill

At the entrance to the Fisherman's Bastion is a statue of Szent Istvan on horseback flanked by lions.

Statue of Szent Istvan at Fisherman's Bastion 

Szent Istvan

Szent Istvan from Front

Closeup of Szent Istvan

Here are the lions flanking the base of the statue.

I took a picture of the base of the statue just because.  :)

Base of Statue of Istvan

I also took some shots of the statue from the Fisherman's Bastion because the view was so good.

Szent Istvan from Fisherman's Bastion

Closeup of Szent Istvan from the Bastion

Detail of Fisherman's Bastion

The views of the Pest, the Danube, and Buda, are amazing and awe-inspiring from the Bastion.

View of Towers and St. Istvan Statue from Fisherman's Bastion Walls

Basilica of St. Istvan from Walls of Fisherman's Bastion

Rooftops of Buda, Danube, and the Banks of Pest from the Bastion

Parliament and the Calvinist Church from the Bastion

Another View of Parliament and Calvinist Church

Buda and Pest from Fisherman's Bastion

And here is Margit hid from the Bastion.

Margit Hid and Rooftops of Buda from Fisherman's Bastion

After walking around Castle Hill, seeing the Matyas Templom and the Fisherman's Bastion, I walked down the stairs leading from Castle Hill into Buda. I walked through Buda, down to the Danube, and over to Margit hid. I crossed Margit hid and walked through Pest to my home on Izabella, off of Andrassy. Here are pictures I took along the way.

As you walk down the hill leaving the Castle District on the end where the Bastion is, you see the steeples of several churches along with the rooftops of Buda. Here are those steeples.

Towers of St. Ann's Church and the Parliament Dome from Buda

From the Fisherman's Bastion you can see three churches on the Buda side. One is the Calvinist Church with its colored tiles which is depicted in some of the shots above. The other is St. Ann's which you see here, and which I also have some pictures of below. The third church is still not known to me but I will found out about it soon.

Church of St. Ann's in Buda 

St. Ann's

Towers of St. Ann's

Here is the Church of St. Francis Wounds.

St. Francis Wounds Franciscan Church Buda

After passing the churches I walked down to Batthyanyi ter and looked at the Parliament building from across the river. Then I walked along the river and crossed the Margit hid.

Parliament from Batthyanyi ter 

Hungarian Parliament Buildings from Across Danube

Looking Across Some Boats to Parliament

Szechenyi Chain Bridge from Buda

 You'll notice you can see the Hungarian Statue of Liberty on the hillside way down the river.

Margit hid

Apparently a lot of people jump off, or try to jump off, Margit hid. Hungary has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. It's not funny, but I get tickled when I walk across it at all the security guards who look at me suspiciously, as if to say, "Why would you want to walk across this bridge."

Budapest is a beautiful city, and the views from the hills on the Buda side of the Danube are breathtaking, but it's a manageable city. I can make the walk from my apartment, to the Basilica, across the Danube on the Szechenyi Bridge, up to the Castle, all around Castle Hill, down the steps into Buda, along the Danube, across Margit hid, and back down Terez korut and Andrassy ut towards home, in about three hours. Someone told me I don't know how to stroll in the European style and that may be true.

Until next time, Szia!