Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
North along Táncsics Mihály utca
In the fifteenth century, when both Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews lived here,
Táncsics Mi-
hály utca
was known as Zsidó utca (Jewish Street). The Ashkenazi community was estab-
lished in1251inthe reign ofBéla IV,butwascompletely wiped outwhenBuda wascaptured
from the Ottomans in 1686. The Jews, who had fared well under Turkish rule, assisted in the
defence of Buda, and those who had not fled or died in the siege were carted away as pris-
oners by the victorious Christian army. After several name changes, the street was renamed
in 1948 after
Mihály Táncsics
, a radical Hungarian politician of the 1848 uprising who was
imprisoned here. As it happens, Táncsics, though not Jewish, joined a Jewish platoon of the
National Guard in protest against anti-Semitism. On the wall at no. 1, a plaque denotes the
former British legation building where
CarlLutz
, the Swiss vice-consul, lived between 1942
and 1945.
Music History Museum
Zenetörténeti Múzeum • I, Táncsics Mihály utca 7• Tues-Sun 10am-4pm • 600Ft • 1 214 6770,
zti.hu
The absorbing
Music History Museum
occupies the Baroque Erdödy Palace where Beeth-
oven was a guest in 1800, and where Bartók once had a workshop before he emigrated.
Indeed, an entire room is given over to Bartók's achievements in the form of photos, docu-
ments, manuscripts and folk songs he collected on his travels and which informed much of
his work. No less fascinating is the assemblage of folk instruments from the eighteenth cen-
tury onwards, including zithers, violins, a superb hurdy-gurdy, and that most Hungarian of
instruments, the hammered dulcimer, or cimbalom, which was popularized in the mid-nine-
teenth century by Romani musicians.
Medieval Jewish Prayer House
Középkori Zsidó Imaház • I, Táncsics Mihály utca 26 • Wed-Sun: May-Oct 10am-5pm, Nov-April 10am-4pm
• 600Ft •
btm.hu
Evidence of Buda's Jewish past can be found at no. 26, which contains a
Medieval Jewish
Prayer House
. Around 1470, King Mátyás allowed the Jews to build a synagogue and ap-
pointed a Jewish council led by Jacobus Mendel; part of Mendel's house survives in the en-
trance to the prayer house. All that remains of its original decor are two Cabbalistic symbols
painted on a wall, and though the museum does its best to flesh out the history of the com-
munity with maps and prints, all the real treasures are in the
Jewish Museum
in Pest.
Bécsi kapu tér and the National Archives
At the end of Táncsics Mihály utca lies
Bécsikaputér
, named after the
ViennaGate
(Bécsi
kapu) that was erected on the 250th anniversary of the recapture of Buda. Beside it is the
forbidding-looking neo-Romanesque
National Archives
building, distinguished by wildly
colourful pyrogranite roof tiles from the Zsolnay factory. The archive holds the most import-
ant national historical resources - charters, plans, maps and the like (the oldest document
