Ruins of a Dominican Convent and Chuch 13 Th-16 Th Centries.

Getty Images/iStockphoto

Dominican Convent

Budapest


A ruin is all that remains of the 13th-century convent built by Béla IV where his daughter St Margaret (1242–71) took the veil. According to the story, the king promised to commit his daughter to a life of devotion in a nunnery if the Mongols were driven from the land. They were and she was – at nine years of age. A red-marble sepulchre cover surrounded by a wrought-iron grille marks her original resting place and there's a viewpoint overlooking the ruins.

Canonised in 1943, St Margaret commands something of a cult following in Hungary. A short distance southeast of the sepulchre there’s a much-visited brick shrine with votives thanking her for various favours and cures.