The late Roman fortress formed an important part of the Pannonian Limes. It was built in the middle of the 4th century AD with walls of more than three metres in depth, with eight U-shaped side towers and four fan-shaped corner towers. The fort was situated on the left bank of the Danube and it could provide unimpeded protection for the ferry connection between the two banks of the river. Inner buildings like lodgins for the military crew, stores or the house of the commander were built against the inner sides of the fortress walls, which provided better defense against attacks from outside. It is very likely that a gate was realised on the western side of the fort, connecting the Danube port with the fortress, and there is also evidence of a ditch with a width of seven metres and depth of three metres that surrounded the complex.

The Parish Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built on the ruins of Contra Aquincum at the end of the 12th century. The sanctuary of the Romanesque church was demolished in the 14th century and a Gothic type hall church was built in its place. The building was reconstructed and enlarged until it reached its present size at the beginning of the 16th century. During the reclamation of the city from the Turks in 1686, the church was almost totally demolished. Its reconstruction ended in 1741, in a Baroque style outside and inside, but preserving its Gothic santuary.  In 1895 the idea of demolishing or moving the church came up in connection with the construction of the Elisabeth Bridge. Fortunately it was not realised, so the listed building could remain in its original place.

The first known form of Pest city’s town hall is from as late as 1710, after the liberation of the city from nearly 150 years of Turkish rule. The two-storey building was heavily destroyed by the great flood of the Danube in 1838 and so a new three-storey high version was built in 1842, following the plans of József Hild, one of the most famous architects of the Hungarian Classicist period. He was also commissioned in 1863 with the extension of the building with a further storey, but soon after it turned out that the building did not fit into the new masterplans of Pest City and it was finally demolished in 1900, giving space to the new boulevard of the new capital, the current Kossuth Street.

Péterffy Palace (Krist House) was built in 1755 and since 1831 it has hosted the Százéves (100 year-old) Restaurant. It was built by the architect András Mayerhoffer, who also designed the Grassalkovich Palace of very similar appearance just a few streets away from here. This other building – together with a lot of other Baroque palaces in the neighbourhood – was the victim of the construction works for erecting the Elisabeth Bridge at the end of the 19th century. Therefore Péterffy Palace is now the only not-ecclasial building of Pest, which was preserved in its original Baroque style.

Dominicans settled down in Pest around 1230 and founded a monastery for St Anthony in the southern side of the city. It is only thought, however, that their cloister could stand on the place of the current St George Church. The monks left the town during the period of the Ottoman rule and the church was then used by Serbian citizens. As the city suffered great damages during the battle for the city in 1686, it was rebuilt as an Orthodox church by 1689 in Baroque style, naming it after St George. In 1731 the church was demolished and it was rebuilt again by the architect András Mayerhoffer.

In 1686, the Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit bought the area of the former mosque and some neighbouring houses after the expulsion of the Turks. The Hungarian-founded order started building its own church in 1723. The architect of the new building is thought to be András Mayerhoffer, one of the greatest figures of Hungarian Baroque architecture. The monastery was built between 1715 and 1744. After the disincorporation of the Pauline Order by Joseph II Habsburg emperor in 1786, the church was gained by the predecessor of ELTE university.

Károlyi Palace is amongst the most important Classicist buildings of Budapest, which has been hosting the Petőfi Literature Museum for 60 years. Current form of the palace was built by György Károlyi in the 1830’s. The plot of almost 3 acre provided a good opportunity to create an urban palace fitting into the city landscape while combining it with the imposing image of a rural castle. The court was put into shape as a closed Baroque French garden, but now it operates as an open park of the urban space.[/caption]Károlyi Palace is among the most important Classicist buildings in Budapest, housing the Petőfi Literature Museum for sixty years. The current form of the palace was built by György Károlyi in the 1830’s. The plot of almost three acres provided a good opportunity to create an urban palace fitting into the city landscape while combining it with the imposing image of a rural castle. The courtyard was shaped as a closed Baroque French garden, but now it operates as an open park of the urban space.

The two Neobaroque buildings designed by Flóris Korb and Kálmán Giergl, built between 1899 and 1902 form an iconic gate for the urban axis defined by the Elisabeth Bridge and Kossuth Street. The development of this boulevard required the demolition of complete urban blocks within the heart of the city and also the rearrangement of the street network. The empty plot was bought by Princess Marie Clotilde, wife of Archduke Joseph Karl of Austria to develop the palaces. The spires of the mirrored towers of the two buildings formed the shape of her husband’s crown.

The Royal Tenement House was built by the Habsburg Family through a royal fund company in 1897. The five-storey building of late Eclectic (Revival) Style with Art Nouveau decorations were designed by the same architects as the Klotild Palaces: Flóris Korb and Kálmán Giergl. For the realisation of the building, three former houses were demolished including the building of the Hungarian Supreme Court, which had been just redesigned for this purpose  in 1869.

Franciscans settled down in the eastern part of the city in the second half of the 13th century. Their cloister is thought to have been built around 1270. The monastery of the mendicant order protected the private life of the monks, however, their church was open to everyone. It was also a place for national assemblies on a number of occasions. After 1541, the building  functioned as a mosque under the name of Sinan Bey, and could only contiune as a Catholic church after the expulsion of the Turks in 1686. In 1741 both the church and the monastery was rebuilt in the Baroque Style.

The Servites settled down in the location of current Szervita Square in 1689 using the former Büjük mosque in the first period. Their Baroque church was built in 1732, while the cloister surrounding the two-storey, closed courtyard was only finished by 1772. Both buildings suffered serious damage in 1849 by canonfire from Buda Castle, shot by the defending Habsburg troops. The cloister was completely rebuilt between 1871-74 by József Diescher who designed a unified facade, levelling the eaves and other lines with that of the church. By 1976 a modern office building appeared on the western side of the church in the location of the former cloister which was heavily damaged during the Second World War.

Török Bank House is a great example of Art Nouveau style in Budapest. It was designed by Henrik Böhm and Ármin Hegedűs in 1906. With great glass surfaces, the facade of the building was a symbol of modernism, while its mosaic decorated gable wall made by Miksa Róth depicts great figures of Hungarian history, with the Patrona Hungariae (protector of Hungary) and the Virgin Mary in the centre of the image. The building had been coronated by a statue of Atlas holding a lighting globe until it was destroyed during the Second World War.

Rózsavölgyi House was built in 1912 by the Leitersdorfer Tailors. It was designed to be mixed-use, reflected in the design of the main facade: the lower shops had a great glass-surfaced facade, while the upper floors of tenements are hidden by a more enclosed design. Despite this duality, the facade is organised as a unified structure by the bold horizontality of the facade elements.

The building was originally built as a residence for the 4,000 crippled soldiers of the Turkish wars which liberated Hungary from the Ottoman rule in the last decades of the 17th century. The plan was to build a rectangular block of four great courtyards with a cross-shaped building in the centre. The first side of the Baroque building was only finished in 1747 under the coordination of Anton Erhard Martinelli. The invalids were later moved to Nagyszombat (Trnava) and the still unfinished block became a barracks. In 1894 the city bought the building to create a new city hall to replace the old one which was due to completly demolished by 1900.