MATHIAS CHURCH (MÁTYÁS TEMPLOM)

The exterior of this beautiful church is reminiscent of the golden age of Budapest in the ^19th century, but its history goes back much further. Built in the Middle Ages, originally in Romanesque style, remodeled in Gothic style, the church becomes in the ^14th century a basilica with three naves. It was in the church of Our Lady of the Assumption in Budavár that Matthias ^I Corvin and Beatrice of Aragon were married in 1476. It was this same king who ordered the construction of the present Matthias Tower. In 1526, the Ottomans took Buda, the church is in flames, its treasure is evacuated by boat to Pozsony (Bratislava, Slovakia). Then the Ottomans transformed the church into a mosque and walled up a statue of the Virgin. When the troops of Eugene of Savoy retake Buda, the cannon blows end up blowing up the wall that hid the statue of the Virgin: an event that Hungarians call "the miracle of Buda". Legend has it that the Ottomans were so demoralized that they gave in. Ruined, the church was then entrusted to the Jesuits, who undertook its partial reconstruction. In 1867, the coronation of Franz Josef and Sissi took place in the Mátyás Church. For the occasion, Sissi herself mended the royal cloak of the first Christian king István. The building was almost completely rebuilt between 1873 and 1896 in the neo-Gothic style by Frigyes Schulek. The interior frescoes are by Bertalan Székely and Károly Lotz.