We’ll start off our walk tour right in front of the Fisherman’s Bastion. After heading up the stairs into the bastion, we’ll take some time to explore and soak in the amazing views over the Danube River, as well as admire the beautiful Church of Our Lady in Buda Castle. From there, we’ll wander through the charming Castle District on our way to the Buda Castle grounds.
Intro music: Aiyo / On My Way / courtesy of Epidemic Sound (https://www.epidemicsound.com/music/tracks/0d14b474-c8f7-479b-8743-d92d34664505/)
Castle Hill sheltered settlements during the Árpád dynasty, later expanded by Béla IV, and rose in prominence as Matthias Corvinus made it Hungary’s administrative center. Fortifications and bastions were repeatedly strengthened in the Middle Ages and Turkish occupation, yet often damaged, shaping a cycle of destruction and rebuilding. Under Matthias, Buda Castle flourished, but after the Mohács disaster Turkish rule abolished traditions, transforming structures until Austrian forces retook the city from the Ottomans. Fisherman’s Bastion’s base follows old bastion walls, from the Híradás Tower to Jesuit Stairs, designed with folded defenses for mutual crossfire protection. Built after Rákóczi’s failed war of independence, the Bastion reflected Austrian military principles, replacing medieval towers with modern defensive structures. Despite Austrian repairs, Fisherman’s Bastion deteriorated under wars and erosion; rain loosened hillside foundations while cannon impacts scarred stone walls. Austrian leaders recognized its military weakness, investing only in minimal fortifications while refusing large-scale restoration or beautification. In 1874, Buda Castle lost fortress status; the Ministry of War declared it obsolete by modern standards, canceling further military repairs. Meanwhile, Budapest’s Beautification Committee sought urban renewal; by 1871, Castle Hill and the Fisherman’s Bastion featured in competition plans for the new capital’s development. Architect Frigyes Schulek, restoring Matthias Church, argued the church’s environment must also be renewed to reflect Hungary’s millennium celebrations. Schulek’s vision was delayed, but construction of Fisherman’s Bastion began in 1899; southern and northern stairs completed by 1902, entire complex finished in 1905. The Bastion’s initial budget—800,000 forints—grew to 1,165,000; grand halls for Hungary’s chieftains were abandoned, their vision realized instead at Heroes’ Square. World War II sieges severely damaged Fisherman’s Bastion; restoration was prioritized afterward due to its cultural and symbolic importance. Architect László Bors directed meticulous restoration by 1953, with firefighters inspecting every centimeter before reconstruction. Later, the Hilton Hotel’s modern façade behind the Bastion sparked controversy—critics saw it disrupt harmony, others praised blending old and new. On 30 May 1995, an entry fee was introduced for the Bastion; by November 2003, the landmark was reopened fully to the public. Between 1247 and 1265, King Béla IV built the first royal residence on Castle Hill; its exact location, southern or northern tip, remains uncertain. In the 14th century, Stephen, Duke of Slavonia, brother of King Louis I, built a palace near Stephen’s Tower—today only foundations remain. King Louis I’s Gothic palace stood around a narrow courtyard beside Stephen’s Tower, marking early grandeur of Buda’s royal seat. King Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, expanded the palace magnificently, turning Buda Castle into Europe’s largest Gothic residence of the late Middle Ages. Construction began in the 1410s, finished mostly by the 1420s; the palace was first recorded in 1437 under the name “fricz palotha.” Sigismund’s northern wing, the Fresh Palace, held the Roman Hall—70 by 20 meters—decorated with statues, balconies, and a carved wooden ceiling. A bronze equestrian statue of Sigismund stood before the palace, later restored by King Matthias Corvinus, symbolizing imperial pride. Southward, narrow zwingers and cortina walls descended steeply toward the Danube; the Broken Tower, unfinished, served as dungeon below and treasury above. Under Matthias Corvinus, the Gothic palace was completed, including the Royal Chapel and its surviving Lower Church. After marrying Beatrice of Naples in 1476, Matthias welcomed Italian artists and craftsmen, making Buda Europe’s first Renaissance center north of the Alps. The cour d’honneur gained an Italian loggia; inside were golden-ceilinged rooms: the famed Bibliotheca Corviniana and frescoed Zodiac passage. Statues of John Hunyadi, László Hunyadi, and Matthias adorned the façade; a fountain of Pallas Athene stood proudly in the courtyard. Fragments of Matthias’s Renaissance palace remain today: red marble balustrades, ornate lintels, and colorful glazed stove tiles. In his last years, Matthias began building a new Renaissance palace beside the Fresh Palace; death left it unfinished. The Matthias Palace featured a monumental red marble stairway, bronze gates with Hercules scenes, and a bronze Hercules statue in the forecourt. The forecourt hosted tournaments and jousts, echoing grandeur of Renaissance ceremony and chivalric spectacle. Westward, walled gardens stretched across Castle Hill slopes; at their heart stood Aula Marmorea, a Renaissance villa—today only one column survives. After Matthias’s death, Vladislaus II continued the Matthias Palace works, especially after marrying Anna of Foix-Candale in 1502. King John Zápolya repaired the palace and built the Great Rondella bastion on Castle Hill’s southern tip, still standing today. After the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the medieval Kingdom of Hungary collapsed, and Ottoman troops occupied Buda on 11 September. Though the city was burned, the Royal Palace survived; Sultan Suleiman carried bronze statues of the Hunyadis, Athene, and Hercules to Constantinople, later destroyed in rebellion. Suleiman also removed volumes from the famed Bibliotheca Corviniana, dispersing Hungary’s treasured royal library. In 1529, another Ottoman siege badly damaged the palace; by 1541 Buda was absorbed into the Ottoman Empire as the Budin Eyalet’s capital. Germans and Hungarians fled the city, replaced by settlers from across the Ottoman lands and the Balkan peninsula. Ottoman writers admired the palace’s beauty, but neglect left it decaying, partly used as stables, barracks, and storage. Turks called it Iç Kala—Inner Castle—and Hisar Peçe, the Citadel; the cour d’honneur was Seray meydani, fondly nicknamed Palace of the Golden Apples. Buda’s economy stagnated; by 1686 its population was no larger than in the 15th century, centuries earlier. The palace fell further into ruin, eventually repurposed as a gunpowder store and magazine. During the Ottoman conquest, Hungary’s Christian population shrank as many fled north to Habsburg Royal Hungary, while Jewish and Roma communities grew. Between 1541 and 1686, the Habsburgs attempted repeatedly to recapture Buda—unsuccessful sieges in 1542, 1598, 1603, and 1684 inflicted heavy destruction. Ottoman authorities repaired only fortifications, leaving many palace buildings roofless and collapsing by the 17th century. Despite decay, much of the medieval palace survived until the catastrophic siege of 1686. In 1686, the Holy League launched a massive campaign: 65,000–100,000 troops from across Europe confronted 7,000 Ottoman defenders. A relentless bombardment set buildings ablaze; Stephen’s Tower, used for gunpowder storage, was struck by a cannon. The explosion, allegedly fired by friar Tüzes Gábor, killed up to 1,500 Turks and sent a deadly wave surging across the Danube. Buda fell to allied Christian forces; the medieval palace was left burned, shattered, and collapsing. Engineers documented its remains, but decay advanced swiftly; by 1715 Stephen’s Tower vanished entirely. King Charles III ordered demolition; surveyor Johann Hölbling recorded surviving fragments before rubble filled moats and fortifications. Statues, coins, and inscriptions were to be preserved, though little evidence shows this happened. The Broken Tower and much of the palace disappeared, buried under terraces of earth and debris. In 1715, Johann Hölbling designed a modest Baroque palace with an inner court and side wing, the earliest core of today’s Royal Palace. Construction halted unfinished in 1719; Fortunato di Prati drafted further plans, but lack of funds prevented progress. In 1723, a fire gutted the building; windows were bricked up, leaving a decaying shell through the 1730s and 1740s. Around 1730, the roof was repaired, but the palace remained an empty, unfinished blockhouse. In 1748, Count Antal Grassalkovich appealed for public funds to complete the palace; Palatine János Pálffy rallied counties and cities for support. The timing was ideal: Hungarians had aided Maria Theresa during the War of Austrian Succession, strengthening bonds with the Habsburg dynasty. The Queen showed gratitude—Buda’s new palace would symbolize peace and friendship between dynasty and nation. Jean Nicolas Jadot, Viennese court architect, drafted plans for a grand U-shaped Baroque palace with cour d’honneur, later modified by Nicolò Pacassi. Master builder Ignác Oraschek guided construction, adding his own designs; foundation stone was laid on Maria Theresa’s birthday, 13 May 1749. Work advanced quickly until 1758, when finances collapsed, halting progress for seven years; only interiors remained incomplete. Surviving plans reveal Jadot’s layout; Pacassi contributed façades, interiors, and St. Sigismund Chapel, while Oraschek designed distinctive Grassalkovich-style double domes, later removed. In 1764 Maria Theresa visited the palace, granting 20,000 thalers annually; Franz Anton Hillebrandt resumed work in 1765. Hillebrandt remodeled the central wing’s façade in Rococo style; in 1769 the chapel was consecrated and the palace declared complete. Final costs totaled 402,679 forints, a monumental sum for the time. Yet Maria Theresa had no wish to live in Buda, spending little time there. In 1769 she donated one wing to the Sisters of Loreto, but the lavish Baroque interiors proved unsuitable for monastic life. By 1777 she decided the University of Nagyszombat should move to Buda; the nuns vacated the palace. Architect Farkas Kempelen oversaw rapid conversion: classrooms, libraries, museums, cabinets, and a university press filled the palace. The false dome was demolished, replaced by a four-storey observatory tower, designed by Hillebrandt or Karl Georg Zillack. In 1778, Hillebrandt built the Chapel of the Holy Right, housing St. Stephen’s mummified hand, recovered from Ragusa by Maria Theresa in 1771. The chapel had an octagonal exterior, oval interior, crowned with a dome; its altar-piece was painted by Joseph Hauzinger. On 25 June 1780, the palace-university was inaugurated, marking the 40th anniversary of Maria Theresa’s coronation. The throne room became a splendid aula, frescoed with images of the four faculties; hidden grisaille frescoes were rediscovered there in 1953. The university in the palace struggled; unresolved problems led to the faculties moving to Pest in 1783. In 1791, the palace became residence of the new Habsburg Palatine, Archduke Alexander Leopold. After his death in 1795, his brothers Joseph and later Stephen succeeded him as Palatines. The Palatinal court turned Buda Castle into the center of Hungarian fashionable life and high society. In 1810, fire damaged the palace; plans to add a new upper floor stalled, though the observatory tower was removed. In 1838, Franz Hüppmann rebuilt the St. Sigismund Chapel crypt, creating the Palatinal Crypt—final resting place of Palatine Joseph and his family. The Palatinal Crypt remains the only surviving part of the palace through World War II. Palatine Joseph commissioned Antal Tost to design southern and eastern hillside gardens, admired as some of Hungary’s most beautiful English landscape gardens. On 23 September 1848, Palatine Stephen abandoned the palace during the Hungarian Revolution. On 5 January 1849, Austrian forces under Prince Windisch-Grätz seized Buda; the commander lodged in the palace. On 4 May, Hungarian troops under Artúr Görgey besieged Buda, defended by General Heinrich Hentzi. On 20 May 1849, Hungarians stormed the castle; fierce artillery duels gutted central and southern wings, destroying interiors. Rebuilding took place between 1850–1856, led by Josef Weiss and Carl Neuwirth. A new third storey and squat attic-tower were added, transforming Maria Theresa’s palace into a more austere Neoclassical-Baroque building. The central risalit gained a balcony supported by six colossal columns. Interiors were lavish: marble ballrooms, white-gold Rococo rooms, and imported Hofburg furniture. Kitchens and service rooms moved to the neighboring Zeughaus, linked by a glass passageway. In 1854, Weiss and Neuwirth designed two new buildings in the cour d’honneur: the Stöckl for archdukes and officials, and the Wachlokal for guards. Emperor Franz Joseph visited in 1856 and 1857. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, he was crowned King of Hungary in the palace, which became a symbol of reconciliation. Budapest’s rapid 19th-century growth inspired ambitious rebuilding of Buda Castle into a rival of Vienna’s Hofburg. Between 1875–1912, sweeping reconstruction reshaped the entire Castle Hill. First came Miklós Ybl’s Neo-Renaissance Várkert-bazár, built between 1875–1882 at the Danube embankment with arcades, stairways, and pavilions. Ybl also built the Várkert-kioszk waterworks and two stair towers, one French Renaissance, the other Gothic-inspired. Only Várkert-bazár and Várkert-kioszk survive today. In 1882, Prime Minister Kálmán Tisza commissioned Ybl to design a master plan for the palace’s complete rebuilding. His 1885 plan doubled the palace size by mirroring the old Baroque structure across the cour d’honneur. He demolished medieval walls and towers on the Újvilág-kert terrace to create a carriageway. The narrow plateau forced Ybl to build a massive three-storey substructure, supporting the grand Krisztinaváros wing. The new monumental western façade rested upon this substructure, dominating the Danube view. While the scale grew, the cour d’honneur façade remained modest, echoing the Baroque palace’s proportions. Stone-clad Neo-Renaissance wings contrasted visibly with stuccoed Baroque sections. The once-open cour d’honneur was enclosed with an arched gateway, guarded by János Fadrusz’s four lion statues. The space became known as Lions Court, or Oroszlános udvar. Work began on 1 May 1890, but architect Miklós Ybl died in 1891. His successor, Alajos Hauszmann, slightly modified the Krisztinaváros wing plans. By 1896, construction reached the court level. King Franz Joseph ceremoniously laid the foundation stone of the palace, soon completed. In 1893, Franz Joseph’s 25th coronation anniversary was celebrated in the palace, but the banqueting hall proved too small. Hauszmann enlarged the hall, reconstructing its wall towards the cour d’honneur, incorporating the old Hillebrandt façade. Despite expansions, the palace was still inadequate for royal celebrations, prompting new construction. Hauszmann designed the north wing on the site of the old Zeughaus, doubling the Baroque palace along the Danube. At the junction of old and new wings, a colonnaded portico rose, crowned with allegorical statues by Károly Sennyey and the grand Habsburg Stairs. The palace dome was crowned with a copy of St. Stephen’s Crown, reflecting Jugendstil influences along with the rear western façade. The western forecourt gained Matthias Fountain by Alajos Stróbl, depicting King Matthias hunting. Above the Szent György tér gate, a statue of Goddess Hungaria stood, marking the main ceremonial façade. The old Chapel of the Holy Right was demolished to create a carriageway. Hauszmann created a new riding school at the Csikós Court, named after György Vastagh’s famous Csikós horseman statue. An equestrian statue of Prince Eugene of Savoy was erected before the long Danube façade, honoring the victor of Zenta. The eastern forecourt was enclosed by a lavish iron rail, ending with a towering statue of the Turul, mythical bird of the Magyars. Two grand staircases linked the palace to Szent György tér, set on higher ground. In the western forecourt, Hauszmann added a neo-Baroque guardhouse and rebuilt the Royal Stables. The Royal Gardens on the southern hillside boasted rare plants, greenhouses, terraces, and Queen Elisabeth’s Swiss House, decorated with Hungarian folk art. The interiors were furnished exclusively by Hungary’s leading artists, creating a national masterpiece. The Royal Palace was officially inaugurated in 1912, hailed as Hungary’s most outstanding building of the age. The Hauszmann palace played a role in Charles IV’s coronation on 30 December 1916. After 1918 and the fall of the Habsburgs, Regent Miklós Horthy made the palace his residence from 1920 to 1944. Under Horthy, the palace became Hungary’s political and social center. Guests included King Victor Emmanuel III in 1937, and Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, later Pope Pius XII, in 1938. On 16 October 1944, Nazi commando Otto Skorzeny seized the palace, forcing Horthy to abdicate. During the siege of Budapest, from 29 December 1944 to 13 February 1945, Buda Castle was the last Axis stronghold. On 11 February, defenders attempted a breakout, but Soviet forces anticipated the move and crushed them in one of Hungary’s greatest military disasters. Intense shelling and fire left the palace in ruins: wings burned, roofs collapsed, interiors destroyed. The devastation rivaled that of the great siege of 1686. After the war, archaeologists led by László Gerő and later László Zolnay began extensive excavations, the largest castle dig in Europe. Royal Gardens terraces, greenhouses, and stairways from 1900 had to be sacrificed for archaeological research. Significant remains of the medieval Sigismund and Matthias palaces survived beneath earth fill. Gerő’s reconstruction plan, finalized in 1952, rebuilt the medieval fortifications in their entirety, defying contemporary conservation norms. The Great Rondella, Gatehouse, Mace Tower, walls, zwingers, Gothic Hall, and Lower Church of the Royal Chapel were reconstructed. Medieval-style gardens were replanted in the zwingers. The Stephen’s Tower foundations were uncovered but left unbuilt due to insufficient evidence; the Broken Tower remains were reburied. This large-scale reconstruction altered Budapest’s skyline but was celebrated as a major heritage achievement. In the 1970s, Zolnay continued excavations on the northern and western sides, yielding important finds, including Late Gothic Buda Castle statues. The Karakash Pasha Tower, a demolished Turkish-era structure, was reconstructed using photographs, though the result was considered inauthentic.