Matthias Church

Parts of Castle Hill’s landmark church date back some half a millennium, notably the carvings above the southern entrance. But basically the church (so named because King Matthias Corvinus married Beatrice here in 1474) is a neo-Gothic creation designed by the architect Frigyes Schulek in 1896. The church has a colourful tiled roof and a delicate spire (although a massive protracted US$20 million restoration keeps the landmark tower under wraps). The interior is remarkable for its stained-glass windows, frescoes and wall decorations by the Romantic painters Károly Lotz and Bertalan Székely. There are organ concerts in the church on certain evenings, continuing a tradition that began in 1867 when Franz Liszt’s Hungarian Coronation Mass was first played here for the coronation of Franz Joseph and Elizabeth as king and queen of Hungary.