Víziváros, »Watertown«, extends along the narrow terrace between Castle Hill and the Danube
Once liable to flooding right up to the era of Turkish rule, this quarter was fortified. The Ottomans installed baths in the area predominantly populated by fishermen, artisans and merchants, and turned the existing churches into mosques. The name Watertown is explained by the repeated floods to which Víziváros was once exposed. There was a lot of building here during the Baroque era, when craftsmen and merchants settled on Castle Hill as a result of the construction of the Royal Palace. This is when, among other buildings, St Anne’s Church (Batthyány tér) was erected. The character of the quarter has been permanently changed by the building of multi-storey apartment blocks from the end of the 19th century onwards.
