Buda Castle with an Avalon river cruise ship
Once upon a time, there were 2 cities across from each other on the Danube River. Buda was the royal capital with its old hilltop castle, and narrow winding cobbled streets. Pest was more modern with a vibrant commercial centre. It has grand boulevards, scintillating night life, and complete independence from Buda. They remained separate cities until they were amalgamated in 1873 with a third city, Óbuda. The merged cities were then united under the name Budapest. Óbuda got left out in the naming department. A bridge was then built across the Danube River called Chain Bridge. After that bridge was built the cities cooperated more with each other and each benefit from the merger. As a unit the city became a major European city.
On our city tour of Budapest, we drove by the Buda Castle, on the Buda side of the Danube. but I got most of my photos of it, from the Pest side of the river. Our bus really drove too close to get good photos. Photographing buildings requires standing away from it. But then, of course, other buildings often intrude.
Located on the aptly named Castle Hill, Buda Castle was constructed in 1259 to be the residence of Hungarian kings, but much of the structure we see today was added in the mid-18th century. It is nearly 1,000 years old. Today, the castle houses the Budapest History Museum and the Hungarian National Gallery. The building, along with much of Castle Hill, is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We did not get to go inside this day, and sadly, I was not able to get to it the next day either. A dreadful pity.
The National Gallery, which is now part of the Buda Castle, contains the largest public collection of Hungarian fine art in the world. The museum is housed within the Royal Palace and displays a wide assortment of Hungarian art work from the medieval period up to the 20th century. It also contains the best collection of European art in the country.
I have been told that the art collection included approximately 6,000 paintings, 2,100 sculptures, 3,100 medals, 11,000 drawings, 5,000 prints, but has now been expanded to include even more art.
This was the castle where the Hungarian Kings—those “heroes of Heroes’ Square—lived and conducted their kingly business. Of course, there have been many changes in millennium of its existence.
Today the castle also houses the Budapest Historical Museum and the National Széchényi Library all worthy elements of Western Civilization.
The Baroque palace that now occupies most of the site was built between 1749 and 1769, and like so many other wonderful buildings in the city was pummelled in World War by the modern barbarians. The reconstruction was started by the next barbarians—the Communist government during the communist era.
The castle was required by King Sigismund when he was the Holy Roman Emperor. Emperor’s need castles. Like peasants need hovels. In fact, he needed a magnificent castle, just like Donald Trump needs a magnificent White House. Unfortunately, the current president of the United States has a rather tacky taste. During the reign of King Sigismund it became the largest Gothic Palace of the late Middle Ages.
After the Battle of Mohács in 1526, which I posted about earlier, the Kingdom of Hungary collapsed and the Ottoman Turks occupied the town which had been evacuated. The town of Buda was then sacked and burned but the Royal Palace was not damaged. Of course, the victor, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, who I also posted about earlier, carried away the best bronze statues and carried them off to Constantinople. Unfortunately, that is where they were destroyed in a rebellion a few years later. Look out if you hang around kings. Showing himself to be a learned man however, the Sultan also carried away many volumes from the library. Then the Ottomans left, but returned once more in 1529 and this time made sure that the palace was badly damaged. Again, remember what kings do. Buda then became formally, a part of the Ottoman empire. The original German and Hungarian population had vanished by then, for their own good.
In 1686 the Holy League, a coalition of Christian European nations was formed during the war with Turkey for the purposes of stopping the expansion of the Ottoman empire into Europe. It was very successful at that, though the costs were high. Large areas of ceded land, were recovered during this time. It was often called the “14th Crusade.” This period was a great turning point in European history that diminished the Ottoman empire and propelled the coalition European partners to greater glories. At least that was how they perceived it.
Much of the damage to Buda and its buildings was caused by Europeans that were led by Habsburgs because they repeatedly laid siege to the city to try to get it back from the Ottomans. For imperial purposes any damage is justified. They had launched sieges in 1542, 1598, 1603 and 1684, before the finally victory in 1686. The old palace was destroyed during that final siege in 1686. The army of the Holy League was about 65,000 to 100,000 men at that time. Some of the buildings were used by the Turks to store gunpowder, and went hit by the Europeans artillery they blew up and caused considerable damage.
The new Ottoman government allowed the palace to go to ruin. They used the barracks as a storage place for stuff and stables for animals. Other than that, they didn’t even use it. But they called it, the Palace of the Golden Apples. Perhaps because the horses liked them.
In the 19th century, after Franz Joseph was crowned King of Hungary peace was declared between the nation of Hungary and the Habsburg empire. During this time the city of Buda experienced rapid economic growth and a lot of attention was paid to the castle and restoring it to be comparable with Vienna’s grand Hofburg Palace which Christiane and I toured during our visits to Vienna.
In the Second World War the castle was occupied by the Nazis, who lived in it lavishly. Then the Russians laid a modern siege to the palace near the end of World II, and it was damaged some more. During the time of the communist regime much of it was deliberately destroyed by the communists who saw it as contrary to their image of Soviet communists. They represented the people, not the royalty.
After communism collapsed, the new government of Hungary tried to restore much of it. Now of course, it is under siege by tourists—like us.
All of this occupation by barbarians caused an enormous amount of destruction, but the people of Hungary repeatedly rebuilt it.