Buda Castle

Buda Castle has endured 24 sieges in its 700 year history, it should therefore not be surprising that little remains, and yet it survives. It has, of course, been rebuilt many times since its 13th Century creation, when King Bela IV fortified Buda.  Buda became the capital city of Hungary in the mid 13th Century, while the country recovered from the Tatar invasion.  

Today, part of Buda Castle contains the Historical National Museum.  It is located in the restored remains of the 18th and 19th Century parts of the palace. The museum contains a large amount of medieval artwork, but its best treasure would have to be the medieval altar pieces.  Although a few of these remain in other countries, I don’t think there is anywhere where you can see so many, in one place.  There is just room, after room, of medieval art works inside Buda Castle. 

In the Arpad era, the first Kings of Hungary from 1000 AD, the court was not tied to a royal castle. It travelled throughout the kingdom, constantly on the move to their various royal residences, but none were the seat of power.  It wasn’t until the early 14th Century, when King Charles I was on the throne, that the royal house had its permanent base on Castle Hill. 

During the retaking of Buda in 1686, it was unknown that the Turks had been using one of the wings of the royal palace to store gunpowder.  During the fighting the gunpowder exploded, after the first barrage hit the building.  The explosion killed 1,500 Turkish soldiers, and triggered a tidal wave on the Danube that washed away artillery and guards who were standing on the opposite shore.  The royal palace was in ruins and not a single house remained intact on Castle Hill.  A survey at the time counted 388 ruined buildings, which included 23 mosques and 47 barracks. 

In the early 18th Century, Empress Maria Theresa ordered a new Baroque palace to be created, to replace the destroyed castle. This was designed by her architect, Jean Nicolas Jadot, and construction began in 1749, however it wasn’t completed until 1769. The new palace was built on top of the site where the castle explosion had occurred, which meant that the foundations started 2.5 meters higher than where the 15th Century palace had.  This new construction destroyed what remained of the medieval palace, or so it was thought.  This new palace went up in flames when the Hungarian liberty fighters took the fortress in 1849.

The last siege of Buda Castle began on the 29th of December 1944, and lasted until the 13th of February 1945.  The 2,000 German and Hungarian soldiers that held the castle, were surrounded by Soviet troops when they sought to break out of the Palace, most were killed in the process. Once again, the palace was destroyed, this time by Soviet artillery. The southern and western wings were been completely burned out and the entire roof had collapsed. 

It was during the restoration after World War II, that the ruins of the Gothic Hall, which was part of the medieval palace, were discovered in 1950.  These were at a lower level than the rebuilding work from the earlier centuries, and had been completely filled in by rubble. The rubble actually acted to preserve these rooms.  There had been a 19th Century winter garden created on top of them.  The reconstruction of the hall was not completed until the 1960s. 

During the restoration of the remains of the medieval castle, a large number of stove tiles were found from the 14th – 16th Centuries.  The tiled stove was a new heating device, and it began to spread in Hungary in the mid-14th Century. It was popular not just because it provided heating, but because of its decorative beauty.  The peak of gothic stove art, is represented by the reconstructed stove with knights figures assembled, these are reproductions of the original tiles found in the castle. 

The medieval chapel was destroyed, but its undercroft survived in much the same way that the hall did.  It had been filled in and thought to have been lost, but was rediscovered under layers of rubble, probably from the explosion of gunpower in the 17th Century siege.  The chapel remains date to the mid-14th Century. Music was part of the Palace from the middle ages, when the staff included a choir and orchestra, as well as the clergy.  The earliest references date from the reign of King Sigismund of Luxembourg (1387-1437), when Miklos of Garamszentbenedek was named as the cantor capelle, who led the choir.  

The court of King Matthias (1458-1490), had both religious and secular music.  Galeotto Marzio wrote, that at banquets, Hungarian language songs were accompanied by the lute and were sung to entertain the diners. The main theme of the songs being the fight against the Ottoman Empire.  This changed however, when Queen Beatrice of Aragon (1476-1490) came along bringing new dances with her, and love songs were now more commonly heard.  King Matthias was known to have loved music, and Queen Beatrice had learned to play the harp in Naples.