Further walks in the Castle District
From the centre of Castle Hill four parallel streets run due north, and two
due south, all of which can be explored in an hour's or an hour and a half's
walk. If you have time, we recommend you to walk along one of them to Bécsikapu
tér, to come back along another one, have a little rest on the Bastion
Promenade or in one of the old-fashioned pastry-shops or restaurants, and then
to continue your walk, admiring the lovely old buildings and remembering to
look into their door- ways and inner courts.
The streets of the district are sometimes broken by bends or slopes, and
therefore you can often only see parts of them at a time. Owing to the
influence of Italian architecture, the tops of the houses run parallel to the
axis of the streets, which results in a restful and harmonious picture. It is
this juxtaposition of historically interesting buildings that gives the
district its pleasant atmosphere of the past.
Even on newer façades, we often find medieval door and window frames,
frescoes or upper floors projecting on arches, and niches with seats in the
doorways. No explanation has as yet been offered for this last feature of the
architecture of medieval Buda. It is assumed that the servants of guests
visiting the noble- men and rich citizens used to wait in these niches for
their masters; in fact, those wishing to taste the wine of the house were
probably also served here.