András Végh (Budapest)
At the time of Buda's foundation (1244) most of the citizens were German; the number and economic importance of the Hungarian citizens lagged far behind. From the last quarter of the fourteenth century, the struggle for power between the Germans and Hungarians increased, to be settled finally in 1439 by a treaty covering a parity-based division of power. From that time on the judge was elected alternately from the Germans and the Hungarians, and the council of the city consisted of six German and six Hungarian aldermen. At the same time, the church of the Hungarians, St. Mary Magdalene's, became an independent parish and got its own parish boundaries. Despite the lack of statistical data, it can be inferred that the changes were facilitated by demographic and social changes, that is, an increase in the number of Hungarian inhabitants and their economic and social power. This process can also be observed in changes in topography.
In the earliest sources Germans are mentioned almost exclusively as house-owners. Searching for this information is difficult, since the survival of source materials has been rather accidental, but it is worth mentioning that houses owned by Germans are known from all over the city, their distribution on Castle Hill was even, and in some instances they occured in the suburbs as well. This supports the conclusion that in the beginning, when the plots were distributed, the Germans were present all over the castrum and they did not live separately from the Hungarians because of the latters' small number.
The sources and data from the second half of the fifteenth and the first quarter of the sixteenth centuries show a different picture. In that period most German citizens dwelt in the streets around the marketplace north of the St. John and St. Sigismund Gates or to the north up to the boundaries of the two parish churches of Our Lady (the parish church of the Germans) and St. Mary Magdalene. The same situation can be observed in St. Nicholas Street, in the 'Italian' Street, and in All Souls Street. Of course, exceptions can be found, too, and there were some areas where Hungarian inhabitants could be found in the German part of the city as well. Nevertheless, it can be stated that in the late Middle Ages the two leading ethnic groups of the city were separated from each other in parallel with the division of the two parish churches and the division of executive power. Regarding the process as a whole, we can say that within the walled town on the hilltop, the Germans drew back to the central part of their former territory, to St. George Square and its neighbourhood, whereas the Hungarians inhabited the whole northern part of the castrum. There are few data for the suburbs, therefore it is difficult to give a fair picture. Nevertheless, it can be said that at the end of the Middle Ages beside the significant number of Hungarians there were still German people living, especially within the parish boundary of the Church of Our Lady, and they could also be found near the parish church of St Peter Martyr.
The two other minorities, the Jews and the Italians, were small in number, and they could be found, with a few exceptions, exactly along the streets or street sections named after them. The Italian long-distance traders used to live in the middle of the castrum between the two main market places, supposedly from the fourteenth century on, although there are hardly any data on their house-ownership. According to previous scholarship, they did not strive to obtain citizenship in Buda and did not take part in ruling the city. However, this seems somewhat contradictory because according to the regulations of the city they could not have owned houses without being citizens, and in fact, the Italian owners of houses mentioned in charters were all citizens of Buda.
As for the Jewish ownership of houses, there are even less data than in the case of the Italians, despite the fact that they are known to have been present since the foundation of the city. There are two street names indicating their changing living quarters. At first, Jews' Street was the name of the street leading southwards from the Jewish Gate. Even if there are no data of Jewish house-ownership from here, the synagogue is known, therefore we can infer that there could have been a small community around it. Sources related to the later Jews' Street, which ran between the Saturday Gate and the old royal house in the northeastern part of the castrum, date back only as far as the second quarter of the fifteenth century, and they exclusively mention the plot of the later synagogue. There is no further information on other real estate; it was only after Sultan Süleyman I expelled the Jews from the city that sources increase related to the donation of the former houses of the Jews. Eleven private properties are known. The houses were built in a block, but they were not strictly separated from the houses of Christians. For example, there was a house that had two gates, one opening to the two sides of the block, one to Jews' Street and the other to St. Paul Street.