The church the Paulines carved themselves

You're standing on Egyetem tér, in front of a church with two towers and a gently undulating façade. As we reach the doors, take a look at the woodwork: tendrils, vases and figures that push out from between the foliage, all carved by hand.

This is the church of the Paulines, the only monastic order that actually originated in Hungary. They came to Pest in 1686, shortly after the Turks had been driven out of Buda, and they bought a mosque here along with a few houses. At first they held their services inside that mosque. Once the building was torn down, they laid the foundation stone of this church on the very same spot, in the 1720s, to a design most likely by András Mayerhoffer, the same master builder behind the palace at Gödöllő.

The reason to step inside is waiting within. The pews, the pulpit, the choir stalls and the doors were all carved by the brothers themselves, and together they form one of the finest late Baroque interiors in the country. It took until 1770 for everything to be finished. Sixteen years later, Joseph II dissolved the order and the church passed to the university, which is how it got its present name, so the carving was already in place while the order that made it had vanished. Going in costs nothing, outside of services.

We cross the square towards the east and head into Károlyi utca, until a gate to a walled garden appears on your left.