Below Castle Hill in the picturesque riverbank Watertown (Víziváros) district is the former Bishop’s Palace, today housing the Christian Museum with the finest collection of medieval religious art in Hungary. It contains Hungarian Gothic triptychs and altarpieces; later works by German, Dutch and Italian masters; tapestries and what is arguably the most beautiful object in the nation: the sublime Holy Sepulchre of Garamszentbenedek (1480), a wheeled cart in the shape of a cathedral, with richly carved figures of the 12 Apostles and Roman soldiers guarding Christ’s tomb. The sepulchre was used during Easter Week processions and was painstakingly restored in the 1970s.
Be sure to see Tamás Kolozsvári’s Calvary altar panel (1427), which was influenced by Italian art; the late-Gothic Christ’s Passion (1506) by ‘Master M S’; the gruesome Martyrdom of the Three Apostles (1490) by the so-called Master of the Martyr Apostles; and the Temptation of St Anthony (1530) by Jan Wellens de Cock, with its druglike visions of devils and temptresses. Audio guides are available for 500Ft, and guided tours in English and German for 3000Ft.
The fastest way to reach the museum from Castle Hill is to walk down steep Macskaút, which can be accessed from just behind the basilica.
