Officially named Our Lady Church, but universally known as Matthias Church after the 15th-century Hungarian king who married twice within its walls, this limestone structure has stood witness to eight centuries of Budapest's story.
The building's most peculiar feature is its tower of the spirit, a black-capped spire that once held tiny bells used to announce the deaths of parishioners to the district below. During the Second World War, Russian artillery destroyed the tower completely, silencing those bells forever; the tower was rebuilt, but the bells themselves vanished into history, likely sold as scrap metal by whoever found them.
VoiceMap's tours reveal Matthias Church as a mirror of Budapest's turbulent past. The church stands at the heart of the Castle District, where medieval synagogues lie buried five metres beneath the streets, where Ottoman occupation left traces of lilac bushes and lingering architectural shadows, and where 20th-century conflict reshaped the city's skyline.
Tours connect the church to King Matthias himself – the popular, fair-minded ruler whose relief appears elsewhere in the district and trace how this building survived invasion, war damage and Communist suppression to become one of Europe's most distinctive Baroque ecclesiastical landmarks.
Tours featuring Church of Our Lady of Buda Castle (1)