Destruction of The Medieval Palace
The medieval palace was destroyed in the great siege of 1686 when Buda was captured by the allied Christian forces. In the heavy artillery bombardment many buildings collapsed and burned out. The Stephen's Tower, used as a gunpowder tower by the Ottomans, exploded. According to contemporary sources, the giant explosion killed 1500 Turkish soldiers, and caused a tidal wave on the Danube that washed away standing guards and even artillery batteries on the opposite shore. It was caused by a single cannon shot by a friar called Gábor, also referred as Tüzes Gábor i.e. "Gabriel Fiery".
Habsburg military engineers made several plans and drawings about the buildings in the next decades. Although the walls mainly survived, the burned out shell was rapidly decaying because of the lack of basic maintenance. In the decade between 1702 and 1715 the Stephen's Tower totally disappeared, and the palace went beyond repair.
In 1715 King Charles III ordered the demolition of the ruins. Johann Hölbling surveyed the still existing structures. According to the order of the king the surviving marble statues, antiquities, inscriptions and coins were spared (there is no evidence about the realization of the royal decree). The main part of the palace and the Broken Tower were totally demolished, the hollows and moats were filled, and a new flat terrace was established. Luckily the southern fortifications, zwingers and rooms were only buried under tons of rubbish and earth.
Read more about this topic: History Of Buda Castle
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