It is officially named The Parish church of Our Lady Mary, but it is known and beloved as Matyas Church, after King Matyas Corvinus.
We were anticipating this visit, to a church, whose confused exterior blend of neo-gothic/neo-baroque and its glazed tile roof are legendary. So it was a bit of a disappointed to find it completely shrouded in scaffolding.

As the site of many royal coronations, marriages, & burials, Matyas is an integral part of Hungary’s national and historical pride.
During the amost 150 years that began in 1547 when the Turks ruled Hungary, the church had been converted to a Mosque.
The legend is that during a worship service, an image of the Madonna appeared to the Turkish rulers and convinced them that they were about to be driven away.
It was restored to its current appearance in the late 1800s.
We entered to an extremely dim and dark interior. It felt like a cave. And seemed almost devoid of decoration. It took several minutes for our eyes to adjust to the gloom.

But once they did we were treated to these amazing frescoed patterns covering almost every square inch of the interior.



Here is a link to the churches website where the unusual painting is explained.
http://www.matyas-templom.hu/eng/templomtortenet.html
Matyas is just another reason we will have to return to Budapest someday. We need to see her exterior without the scaffolding.