Once, the area around the University Square, Kecskeméti Street, was the edge of the Pest city center, and one of the four gates surrounded by a strong medieval stone wall stood at the end of the street. Outside, the noise of market vendors from the plains filled Kálvin Square, while within the gate, the burghers of Pest were constructing, and merchants and artisans were walking the streets. Later, classicist bourgeois apartments and neo-Renaissance palaces were built here, which today provide the decor for the square's life, and its atmosphere is given by the vibrant life of university students, the tranquility of Károlyi Garden, the intellectual legacy of former literary cafés and venues, and the hospitality of the businesses, restaurants, and cafés along the streets that lead here.
