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Castle
District
The Castle District in Buda
is the ancient kernel of the capital's right-bank
settlement.
Everything that surrounds it was once only suburbs.
From whatever direction you reach the Castle
District, you cross the ramparts which completely
encircle Castle Hill.
The whole area within the ramparts is protected
as an ancient monument: the lines of the streets
and the foundations and architectural remains
of the buildings retain the atmosphere and memories
of the medieval and eighteenth and nineteenth-century
capital.
History
The building of the town began in the middle
of the thirteenth century.
At the time of the 1241 Mongol invasion the
town of Pest, built on the plain on the site
of today's Inner City and thus completely defenseless,
had been burnt down and its population put to
the sword.
The Royal Castle was built at the southern end
of the plateau, the civilian town to the north.
At first the town was protected only by fences
and the walls of the houses, but by the early
sixteenth century it was surrounded by strong
ramparts.
The Turks in 1541 did not lay siege to Buda
but captured it by trickery.
Later they further fortified the ramparts.
It was only after repeated sieges that the united
Christian armies succeeded in 1686 in recapturing
Buda Castle.
The country then came under the rule of the
Habsburg Emperor Leopold.
The city of Buda was almost completely destroyed
by the siege and only a handful of inhabitants
remained.
Therefore, in order to repopulate the town,
settlers were invited from abroad.
The former capital sank to the status of a small
provincial town in the Habsburg Empire.
Then, during the eighteenth century, a little
Baroque town grew up on the medieval ruins.
Not much more than 150 years after the Turkish
devastation, in 1849, during the Hungarian War
of Independence, the Castle was again besieged.
It was only in 1867 when, as a result of the
Compromise with the Habsburg dynasty, an independent
Hungarian government was created, that the Castle
District once more became the administrative
center of the country.
It was destroyed in the Second World War.
Towards the end of the Second World War, it
was in the Castle District that the last Nazi
German troops concern treated and held out,
from the end of December 1944 until the middle
of February 1945, when the Soviet Red Army liberated
the capital after a siege lasting almost two
months.
As a consequence of the Germans' bitter resistance
the Castle District again suffered enormous
damage - part of the medieval remains that can
now be seen were discovered during the reconstruction
of houses which were found to have been built
upon the foundations of earlier ones.
Approach
As Castle Hill rises 50 to 60 meters above the
Danube, the inhabitants of Budapest rightly
say that they go "up" to the Castle.
If you are going by car, a winding road, which
offers a wonderful view, starts at the Buda
end of the Chain Bridge.
However, the pleasant est approach is on foot.
You can start from any of the main streets running
round the hill: Fô utca, Batthyány
utca or Attila utca, and by taking the quiet
little streets, steps or slopes cut in the castle
walls, you reach the Castle District in a very
few minutes.
Holly Trinity Column
The first votive memorial was erected in 1706,
after the bubonic plague epidemic which occurred
in 1691.
However it was pulled down four years later
as the citizens of Buda, for fear of the pestilence,
wished to erected a larger votive column.
The new memorial was finished by 1713.
It is a hexagonal obelisk and on its pedestal
era three relieves.
In 1925-30 it was almost completely re-carved;
the damage caused by the Second World War was
repaired in 1968.
The originals are preserved in the Kiscelli
Museum.
The Fishermen's
Bastion
The Fishermen's Bastion is one of the most popular
spots of the Castle District with visitors,
as it offers a grand panorama of almost the
entire city.
It is situated at the eastern side of Castle
Hill, and can be reached from the center of
the district, Szentháromság tér
(Trinity Square).
Its architecture is characteristic of the turn
of the century; its flights of stairs, its projections,
its turrets, and its ambulatory, like galleries
make it a mixture of the neo-Gothic and neo-Romanesque
styles and of the romantic baronial castles.
It looks much older as it is. It was built for
the same anniversary as the Heroes' Square.
The architect wanted to make a nice frame with
the little towers of the Bastion around with
the big tower of the Matthias Church.
There are 7 towers here - because there were
7 Hungarian tribes.
The Fishermen's Bastion received its name from
the medieval ramparts system which rose above
the suburb named Fishermen's Town.
Furthermore, there used to be a fish-market
behind the ramparts.
Beneath the Fishermen's Bastion lies the old
suburb of Víziváros (Water Town),
now full of new bindings.
The reason of the name is probably that there
was a huge fish-market here in the Middle Ages.
The other reason is that the Fishermen guild
had to defend this part of the city in case
of attack.
Statue
of Saint Stephen
In the upper court of the Fishermen's Bastion
stands an equestrian statue of Saint Stephen
I , the first king of Hungary (1001-1038) and
founder of the State.
Stephen was born in 977, died in 1038.
The statue was inaugurated near the Fishermen's
Bastion in 1906.
Its creator worked on it for ten years.
With enormous energy, he collected all the information
he could connected with eleventh-century Hungarian
art history, aiming at perfect historical accuracy
down the smallest detail.
Statue
of János Hunyadi
János Hunyadi, the future King
Matthias' father was a famous military commander
who in 1456 repulsed the Turkish attack at Nándorfehérvár
(today's Belgrade).
It was thanks to them that the Turks were unable
to realize their plans until many decades later.
It was to commemorate his victory that Pope
Calixtus III ordered that church bells should
be sounded every noon.
Turul Bird
The Turul, formerly the sacred bird of the Ancient
Magyars, was honored as the ancestor of the
Hungarian people.
Its depiction played an important role in the
series of festivities in 1896 to mark the thousandth
anniversary of the Conquest when the bird was
portrayed on numerous monuments.
During the WW2 the statue miraculously remained.
The Statue of Eugene
of Savoy
Opposite the front entrance overlooking the
Danube is the bronze equestrian statue of the
famous general.
It was he who led armies that liberated Buda
and began the expulsion of the Turks from Hungary.
The commission for the statue was originally
given by the town of Zenta; the town however
went bankrupt and could not pay the artist.
National
Gallery - Nemzeti Galéria
The art of a small country is always a private
affair and this is especially true of the art
of the past.
Still, those who spend half an hour strolling
around the exhibition of Hungarian Painting
in the 19th Century will not regard it a waste
of time.
They should not bother about the names with
strange spellings and historic figures unknown
to them.
The paintings in this exhibition, which takes
up one floor of the gallery, breathe a definite
awareness of life, a special "patriotic
sorrow".
Modern History Museum
of the National Museum
The Museum used to be called "The Museum
of the Working Class Movement" - a singularly
fitting function in the royal palace.
However, its exhibitions always focused on the
history of Hungarian civilization.
When the totalitarian regime started crumbling,
the museologists were busy collecting the leaflets
that called for demonstrations.
This museum is situated in the northern wing
of the Palace, so visitors can enjoy the view
of Buda and Pest in three different directions.
Royal Palace
The inside of the building was restored only
in the 1970s.
The building itself has two floors above the
level of the courtyard, but the ground floor
is really the fifth floor of the library.
The library has about 2 million books and even
more manuscripts, musical scores and newspapers.
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