The Architectural History of Buda Castle

Following the mid-13th century invasion of the Tatars, Béla IV had a castle built with a keep and fortified walls on the south-western promontory of Buda's Castle Hill principally for defensive purposes, to which a civilian town was attached from the north.
Recent researches have revealed that the royal residence, the so-called Magna Curia Regis was situated in the northern end of Castle Hill, around the Szombat [Saturday] (today: Bécsi [Vienna]) Gate. It was in the Angevin Age that Buda became the true capital of the country. Louis the Great left Visegrád for Buda as the permanent residence of the court and considerably extended Béla IV's fortification (buildings around the "small court", István [Stephen] Tower). The groundfloor rooms and vaulted cellar of Sigismund of Luxemburg's palace are still existing (as exhibiting spaces of the Budapest History Museum). The so-called Csonka [Incomplete] Tower was in place of today's Lion Court (its groundplan is indicated by coloured stripes). The Gothic sculptures - fragmentary figures of knights, saints, bishops, prophets - excavated in 1974 must date from Sigismund's time. During the reign of King Matthias Corvinus, the palace was extended with a storey, a chapel and rooms to house the Corvina Library under the guidance of master builder Chimenti Camicia.
After the disaster at Mohács (1526) and during the Ottoman dominion, the castle suffered heavy damage. The reconstruction was led by Johann Hölbling, who had the medieval walls pulled down nearly to their foundations, the moats filled with the rubble and a plain and simple quadratic block erected on the site between 1715 and 1724. He attached a longitudinal wing to the block north-westwards (it houses the Budapest History Museum today).
The history of the buildings of the Hungarian National Gallery can be retraced to the days of Maria Theresa. The realization of the plans of the imperial chief architect Jean Nicolas Jadot began under the supervision of Ignác Oracsek in 1750. The palace, at first the temporary shelter of the nuns of the Blessed Virgin Mary, became the residence of Albert, Duke of Saxon-Teschen, the regent of Hungary and his wife Maria Christina, Archduchess of Austria, in 1766. At that time, the northern wing (the central building today) was unfinished for financial reasons. The apartments of the emperor and the empress were situated on the first floor of today's building D. Access to the empress's apartment was from the Diplomats' Staircase in the north, and to the emperor's from the King's Staircase in the south. Situated between the antechambers of the emperor's and empress's suites was the cove-vaulted state-room in Louis Seize style (also called ceremony room, and after 1865 the "great throne-room", which houses the late-Gothic winged altarpieces today).
Transferred from Nagyszombat, the university was run here from 1777 to 1784. Later the Vienna court assigned the palace to the palatine and his household. The reconstruction of the buildings damaged during the events of the War of Liberation in 1848/49 was completed in 1856. Extensions implying major reconstructions inside and outside so as to create a royal residence again began after the Compromise with Austria and the coronation of Francis Joseph as king of Hungary (1867). Miklós Ybl planned a new row of buildings looking westward, down upon Krisztinaváros (Christina Town, building F, today the National Széchényi Library). Construction work interrupted by Ybl's death was resumed by Alajos Hauszmann in 1893. He attached a new wing (B) to building C from the north to echo building D. This is joined, also with a necking, by building A from the north (today housing temporary exhibitions). Earlier the arms supply depot (Zeughaus) stook in its place.
Hauszmann's plan was to unite the series of buildings by a unifying system of roof design. Emphasis was laid on the Danuble front of the middle section of the building and the two-storey tall Habsburg Room behind it by the employment of a modest central projection and a dome. In front, a two-armed staircase was planned. The facades were adorned with figural groups, symbolic figures and vases. On the court front, he opened an arcade (building D). He designed a "new festive room" (also known as the "great dance hall" or "ball room", which houses a section of the 19th century permanent exhibition). Attached to it on the Danube side is a longitudinal room, the so-called "buffet hall" (where Mihály Munkácsy's and László Paál's paintings are on display today). The extensions by Hauszmann were finished in 1905.
The reliefs and statues that can still be seen on the buildings were added in this period. The pillar on the Danube side of the enclosure at Szent György square supports the Hungarian mythic eagle ("turul") by Gyula Donáth (made in 1903, erected in 1905). Outside the eastern face of building A, Károly Senyei's fountain statue "Angling children" can be seen (1912). The monument of Eugene of Savoy by József Róna (1900) was originally made for the town of Zenta. Miklós Ligeti's two statues - Csongor and Tünde - originally adorning the landing of the Habsburg Staircase flank now the main entrance to the Gallery (building C) placed on separate pedestals. Attached to the northern exterior of the one-time St Sigismund Chapel, Alajos Stróbl's Matthias fountain (1904) conjures up the halcion days of the palace. The statue entitled "Horseherd" (or "Curbing a Horse") by György Vastagh the younger, which is now in front of building B, used to stand outside the south face of the riding-hall between 1899 and 1901. The titular statues of the Lion Court were carved by János Fadrusz in 1901-02. The gate at the south end of this courtyard, the so-called Telegraph Gate leading into the Budapest History Museum is flanked by the sculptural compositions of War and Peace by Károly Senyei (1900).
The royal palace, which gradually became the centre of administration in the early decades of the 20th century, suffered extremely heavy damage during World War II: it was gutted by fire. Restoration began in 1950-51. In 1975 the Hungarian National Gallery opened its first exhibition in its new home, the group of buildings B, C and D of the Royal Palace rebuilt for exhibiting purposes.

Gizella Szatmári