About the Matthias Church in Budapest, Hungary:
The Matthias Church (officially The Church of the Assumption of the Buda Castle…and more rarely as the Coronation Church of Buda), is located in the heart of Buda’s Castle District. Originally built in Romanesque style in 1015, the current building was constructed in late Gothic style in the second half of the 14th century and then extensively restored in the late 19th century. It was the second largest church of medieval Buda and the seventh largest church of the medieval Hungarian Kingdom.
The building itself has had a turbulent history, going from a church to a mosque and back to a church again over the centuries. Founded around 1255 under King Béla IV, it served as a parish church for Buda’s German community. The church blends Gothic, neo-Gothic, and eclectic styles.
The church is named after King Matthias Corvinus, who held both of his weddings in this church.
Note: as was usual during this period of history, marriages were often the result of political maneuvering to secure territory or maintain loyalties. King Matthias was no exception.
King Matthias married twice for political reasons to secure alliances and expand his power.His first marriage was to the daughter of a powerful enemy, Elizabeth of Celje for a reconciliation, though this was interrupted by her early death. His second, much more successful political marriage, was to Beatrice of Aragon, the daughter of the King of Naples, to consolidate his influence and gain support against rival powers like the Habsburgs.
The south gate, which is still called the Bride’s Gate, reminds us of this. The parish priest of the church at that time was Marcin Bylica, a friend of Matthias, an excellent astronomer, and Regiomontanus.He added the iconic Matthias Bell Tower and embellished the church, making it a royal coronation site.
During Ottoman rule (1541–1686), it was converted into a mosque, with Christian elements removed or plastered over.
In 1686, during the siege of Buda by the Holy League, a wall of the church – used as a mosque by the Ottoman occupiers of the city – collapsed due to cannon fire. It turned out that an old votive Madonna statue was hidden behind the wall. As the sculpture of the Virgin Mary appeared before the praying Muslims, the morale of the Muslim garrison collapsed and the city fell on the same day.
The triumphant statue of Mary was carried on the streets of Buda in a Thanksgiving procession. Remembering this event, the church is still a place of veneration of the image.
After the 1686 Siege of Buda, it was restored as a Catholic church. A major neo-Gothic reconstruction (1874–1896) by architect Frigyes Schulek gave it the distinctive diamond-patterned roof tiles and ornate interiors seen today.
In 1867, as culmination of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise, cardinal-Archbishop of Esztergom János Simor crowned here as Hungarian king the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I and his wife, Elizabeth with the Holy Crown. The Coronation Mass by Franz Liszt was performed for the first time in this important celebration.
On December 30, 1916, Charles IV and his wife, Queen Zita were crowned here, by the cardinal-Archbishop of Esztergom János Csernoch with the Holy Crown.
In 1927 the “Chapel of the Knights of Malta” was created in an oratory in the northern gallery of the church. Around the altar and along the corridor were the shields of the then Hungarian Knights of Malta. A restoration was made in 2005, after which the church authorities and the Hungarian Association of the Order of Malta restored the custom of exposing the coats-of-arms of deceased knights. Around the altar there are five commemorative shields of noteworthy Chaplains of the Order, among them Cardinal Jusztinián György Serédi, and the martyr Bishop Blessed Vilmos Apor. In the foreground one can see the shields of the members from 1925 to 1944, while in the passage from the sacristy to the lower church there are the shields of deceased members after 1945. On All Souls Day each year, after a funeral Mass, the knights place on the wall the coats-of-arms of the members who died during the year.
In 1936, on the 250th anniversary of the recapture of the Buda Castle, a Hungarian and Italian inscription commemorating the Baron Michele d’Aste was placed on the right-hand apse wall. Lieutenant-Colonel D’Aste, who died during the battle, contributed greatly to the success of the action. The inscription reads as follows: “Lieutenant Colonel Michele d’Aste, Italian Colonel, on September 2, 1686, was among the first to sacrifice his life for the liberation of Buda”
Before World War II, a complete renovation of the church was begun, but the war prevented its completion. During the 1944–1945 siege of Budapest by the Allies, the building was severely damaged. The crypt was used by the Germans for their camp kitchen and after the fall of the city, the Soviets used the sanctuary to stable their horses. War damage was repaired by the Hungarian State between 1950 and 1970. The five-manual organ, which had been severely damaged during the war, was repaired and re-consecrated in 1984.
In 1994, an unidentified terrorist detonated an IED at the gate of the building that opens towards the Fisherman’s Bastion, damaging sixteen of the church’s windows.
In 1999 the church was—for the first time in its history—handed over to the Catholic Church as parish property. The state financed restoration works from 2005 to 2015.
The last two Kings of Hungary were crowned within its walls: Franz Joseph I of Hungary, and Charles IV of Hungary (1916).
The church was also the location of the “Marian Miracle” of Buda.
In 2000, in the year of the Great Jubilee, remembering the former sending of the crown, the young people of the church made a fresh copy of the Holy Crown of Hungary for Pope John Paul II which was brought to him at the Vatican on a walking pilgrimage, blessed in Rome and crowned with the statue of Virgin Mary on the main altar at the Assumption of the Pope.
The pulpit of the church was built between 1890 and 1893 during the extensive reconstruction of the building. It was designed by Frigyes Schulek with the help of art historian Béla Czobor who contributed to the draft of the iconographic plan. The statues were carved by Ferenc Mikula, the abat-voix was made by Károly Ruprich.
The pulpit was built of sandstone, and the surfaces are entirely covered with Neo-Romanesque ornamental painting including the statues. There is a wrought-iron rail at the bottom of the steps. The Gothic Revival abat-voix, resembling a medieval tower, was carved of oak and the statue of the Good Shepherd on the top was made of linden. The platform of the pulpit is supported by an outer ring of arches and a massive central pillar. The most interesting part of the structure is the sculptural decoration of the parapet with the statues of the four evangelists and the four Latin doctors of the church standing under the arches of a blind arcade.
The sequence of the figures on the pulpit is: St John with the eagle, St Augustine with the boy, St Luke with the ox, St Ambrose with the beehive, St Mark with the lion, St Gregory the Great with the dove, St Matthew with the angel and St Jerome with the lion.
Today the church has 7 bells. Six of them are located in the bell tower and the one damaged bell hangs in the cavalry tower. Three of the tower’s bells are historic bells (from years 1723, 1724 and 1891). The church received four new bells in 2010.
It is home to the Ecclesiastical Art Museum, which begins in the medieval crypt and leads up to the St. Stephen Chapel. The gallery contains a number of sacred relics and medieval stone carvings, along with replicas of the Hungarian royal crown and coronation jewels.
Traveling to The Matthias Church in Budapest, Hungary
Address:Budapest, Szentháromság tér 2, 1014 Hungary
Phone:+36 1 355 5657
Click here for the official website of the Matthias Church in Budapest, Hungary.