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The Varnegyed (Castle District) is the residential area to the north of the palace where, for many centuries, residence was a privilege granted to religious or ethnic groups, each occupying a specific street. This pattern persisted through the 145-year-long Turkish occupation, when Armenians, Circassians and Sephardic Jews also established themselves under the relatively tolerant Ottomans. The liberation of Buda by a multinational Christian army under Habsburg command was followed by a pogrom and ordinances restricting the right of residence to Catholics and Germans, which remained in force for nearly a century. In 1944, the Swedish Red Cross established safe houses here for Jewish refugees, some of whom remained hidden in caves after the others were forced into the ghetto. By the time the Red Army finally took Buda on February 13, 1945, only four houses on the hill were habitable. The obvious starting point is Szentharomsag ter (Holy Trinity Square), the historic heart of the district, named after an ornate Trinity Column erected in 1713 in thanksgiving for the abatement of a plague. To the southwest on the corner of Szentharomsag utca stands the former Town Hall of Buda, which functioned as a municipality until the unification of Buda, Pest and Obuda in 1873. Down the road at Szentharomsag utca 7, the tiny Ruszwurm patisserie has been a pastry shop and cafe since 1827, and was a gingerbread shop in the Middle Ages. Its Empire-style decor looks much the same as it was under Vilmos Ruszwurm, who ran the patisserie for nearly four decades from 1884.
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