Budapest Guide
Várhegy and central Buda
The Víziváros
Inhabited by fishermen, craftsmen and their families in medieval times, the Víziváros ("Watertown"), between Várhegy and the Danube, became depopulated during the seventeenth century, and was resettled by Habsburg mercenaries and their camp followers after the Turks were driven out. The following century saw the neighbourhood gradually gentrified, with solid apartment blocks meeting at odd angles on the hillside, reached by alleys which mostly consist of steps rising from the main street, Fő utca. Some of these are still lit by gas lamps and look quite Dickensian on misty evenings.
If you head north past the Institut Français at Fő utca 17 and a former Capuchin church featuring Turkish window arches at no. 30, you come to Szilágyi Desző tér, a square infamous for the events that occurred here in January 1945. When Eichmann and the SS had already fled, the Arrow Cross massacred hundreds of Budapest's Jews and dumped their bodies in the river; an inconspicuous plaque commemorates the victims. From here, you can make a brief detour left up Vám utca, just north of the square, to see the Iron Block, a replica of a wooden block into which itinerant apprentices once hammered nails for good luck (the original is in a museum).