History of Buda Castle - Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The first royal residence on the Castle Hill was built by King Béla IV of Hungary between 1247 and 1265. It remained unsettled whether it was situated on the southern tip of the hill or on the northern elevation near the Kammerhof.

The oldest part of the present-day palace was built in the 14th century by Stephen, Duke of Slavonia, the younger brother of King Louis I of Hungary. Only the foundations remained of the keep which was called Stephen's Tower (Hungarian: István-torony). The Gothic palace of King Louis I was arranged around a narrow courtyard next to the keep.

King Sigismund significantly enlarged the palace. Sigismund, as a Holy Roman Emperor, needed a magnificent royal residence to express his primacy among the rulers of Europe. He chose Buda Castle as his main residence, and during his long reign it became probably the largest Gothic palace of the late Middle Ages. Buda was also an important artistic centre of the International Gothic style.

The construction works began in the 1410s and were largely finished in 1420s although some minor works continued until the death of the king.

The most important part of Sigismund's palace was the northern wing, called Fresh Palace (Hun: Friss-palota). On the top floor of it there was one huge hall (70 m x 20 m) with a carved wooden ceiling and great windows and balconies looking to the city of Buda. It was called the Roman Hall. The façade of the palace was decorated with statues and coat-of-arms. The palace was first mentioned in 1437 under the name "fricz palotha"

Sigismund also strengthened the fortifications around the palace. The southern part of the royal residency was surrounded with narrow zwingers. Two parallel walls, the so-called cortina walls run down from the palace to the River Danube across the steep hillside. The most imposing structure, the famous Broken Tower (Hun: Csonka-torony), on the western side of the cour d'honneur remained unfinished. The basement of the tower was used as a prison, the top floors were probably the treasury of the royal jewels.

In front of the palace stood the bronze equestrian statue of Sigismund, later repaired by King Matthias Corvinus.

The last phase of grand-scale building activity happened under King Matthias Corvinus). During the first decades of his reign the king carried on and finished the works on the Gothic palace. The Royal Chapel - with the surviving Lower Church - was probably built that time.

After the marriage of Matthias and Beatrice of Naples in 1476, Italian humanists, artists and craftsmen arrived at Buda. The Hungarian capital became the first centre of Renaissance north of the Alps. The king rebuilt the palace in early Renaissance style. The cour d'honneur was modernized and an Italian loggia was added. Inside the palace there were two rooms with a golden ceiling, the famous Bibliotheca Corviniana and a passage with the frescoes of the 12 signs of the Zodiac. The façade of the palace was decorated with the statues of John Hunyadi, László Hunyadi and King Matthias. In the middle of the court there was a fountain with the statue of Pallas Athene.

Only fragments remained of this Renaissance palace: red marble balustrads, lintels, decorative glazed tiles of stoves and floors.

In the last years of his reign Matthias Corvinus began to build a new Renaissance palace on the eastern side of the Sigismund Courtyard, next to the Fresh Palace. The Matthias Palace remained unfinished because of the early death of the king. It is known from written sources that it had a monumental red marble stairway in front of the façade. The bronze gates were decorated with panels depicting the deeds of Hercules. Matthias Corvinus was usually identified with Hercules by the humanists of his court. A great bronze statue of the Greek hero welcomed the guests in the forecourt of the palace complex where jousts were held.

The walled gardens of the palace were laid out on the western slopes of the Castle Hill. In the middle of the enclosure a Renaissance villa was built by Matthias. Only one column survived of this so-called Aula Marmorea.

After the death of Matthias Corvinus his successor, King Vladislaus II carried on the works of the Matthias Palace, especially after his marriage with Anna of Foix-Candale in 1502.