Matthias Church

The church on Trinity Square has been rebuilt so many times that its medieval core is hard to read. What visitors see is largely the work of Frigyes Schulek, who between 1874 and 1896 stripped away later additions and reimagined the building as he believed a fourteenth-century church should look, adding the openwork spire and the roof of glazed Zsolnay tiles laid in diamonds and zigzags. Inside, the walls are covered edge to edge in painted geometric and floral ornament by Bertalan Szekely and Karoly Lotz, closer to a carpet than to the bare stone of most Gothic interiors. Two coronations took place here, in 1867 and 1916, which is why Hungarians still call it the coronation church.

History

Tradition, based on an inscription of 1690, holds that Saint Stephen founded the first church here in 1015, though there is no clear evidence; after the Mongol invasion King Béla IV replaced the older church in 1255-1269 with a towering three-aisled basilica, built first under the direction of Villard de Honnecourt with masters from the Cistercian monastery of Tišnov and then by a second group influenced by northern French architecture, the earliest and most complete classical Gothic church in Hungary. In the second half of the 14th century it was rebuilt as a Gothic hall church, with Louis I beginning the Mary Gate in 1370, and since the 19th century it has been called after King Matthias, who had its southern tower remodelled. The last two kings of Hungary, Franz Joseph I and Charles IV, were crowned within its walls (Wikipedia, Matthias Church).

What you'll find

• The tiled roof - glazed Zsolnay tiles laid in diamond and zigzag patterns.
• The painted interior - walls covered wall to vault in nineteenth-century ornament.
• The gallery museum - treasury, vestments and a replica of the crown, upstairs.
• The south tower - climbed on a timed ticket for a close view of the roof and the river.

When to go

Any month works, but the church is busiest between ten and three when the coach groups and the funicular arrive together. Early morning and the last hour before closing are calmer. It shuts to visitors during Mass and for weddings, which are frequent on Saturdays, and the organ concerts held on summer evenings are a good way to sit in it without a crowd.

Good to know

It is a small building for the number of people pushed through it, and the nave can be shoulder to shoulder. The entrance charge is high for what amounts to one room plus a gallery. Photography of the interior is allowed but the light is poor and the ornament flattens out. The square outside is one of the most crowded spots in Budapest and there is scaffolding somewhere on the building more often than not.

Nearby

Fisherman's Bastion is directly behind it, and the castle quarter runs south along the ridge.

Key facts