Buda Castle (Budavar), Budapest

Castle of Buda (or differently named Palace of Buda) stands on the oldest part of Budapest - Buda district. The fortress here was built in 1255.

After centuries of reconstruction now castle have a look of 15th-16th centuries. Mostly all the castle is a National Gallery now, housing the sculpture and pictures of 19-20th centuries.

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The Buda Castle District, on the hill overlooking the Danube and the Pest side, is almost a small town in its own right and in fact during its formative years it actually was. The original castle was built in the 13th century as a fortress to deter Mongol attacks and was extended in the 15th century when the royal family built their palace on the site.

Over the years the castle has been variously razed and rebuilt (still an ongoing process) and was severely damaged during the Seige of Budapest by the Russian Red Army towards the end of World War II. The post-war reconstruction has been mostly sympathetic (with the glaringly obvious exception of the Hilton Hotel) to its late Medieval layout, retaining the house styles and cobbled streets as well as the important buildings of that period.

The Royal Palace was a more recent project as during the Communist era this was viewed a symbol of decadence and much of what had survived the World War II Nazi occupation was torn out by the Socialists.

Reconstruction is pretty complete now (Jan 2011) and the district has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987. It contains several of the city's museums, a couple of fine churches and a lot of tourist shops and restauarants. It is still welll worth a visit, even if you are not a museum person, and the views over, and along, the river are pretty spectacular.

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The southern part of the Buda hill is the site where the Royal castle was built. Basically nothing is left of the medieval castle, built by the Kings from the Anjou dynasty in the 14th century. A few relics of the later castle are preserved and on display in the basement of the present-day building (in the Historic museum). The magnificent Renaissance palace was destroyed in the Turkish wars, the Baroque palace was enlarged and re-designed in the 19th century but severely damaged in WWII. From 1950 on it was reconstructed - more functionally than authentically. The ugly windows are an insult for the eyes e.g.

Anyway, nowadays the complex is home for the Hungarian National Gallery, a stunning collection of Hungarian works of art from medieval to contemporary, the Szechenyi National Library and the Budapest Historic Museum. I didn't have time for one of those so just wandered around on the grounds, admired the views of the city and the few preserved original pieces: The neo-Baroque staircase at the northern entrance to the garden terrace, the monument of Prince Eugen von Savoyen, the beautiful Matthias fountain from 1904, the originally preserved fortifications on the southern side of the hill - where I left the castle grounds through Ferdinand gate and walked down to the Danube bank.

The Matthias fountain is situated in the western forecourt of the palace, and shows a group of hunters led by King Matthias Corvinus (1443-90). He was the first King of Hungary to be elected from among the nobility.

The fountain was made by sculptor Alajos Stróbl.

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The Turul is a mythological bird, important to the origin of the Magyars, supposedly the messenger of god. The Turul appeared in a dream to Emese, the mother of Almos, while she was pregnant, and showed her a great river flowing from her womb westwards over strange lands, which was seen to mean that her child would be a great leader and take their people to a new home.

This statue was made by Gyula Donáth in 1905.

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Situated on the southern tip of Castle Hill, the first royal residence was built by Bela IV between 1247-1265 following the Mongol Invasion, and many enlargements and renovations took place throughout the Medieval period. During it's history it has been through earthquake, fire, siege and world war - it was neglected and used as barracks and stables during the Ottoman occupation; destroyed by seige in 1686; demolished in 1715 and rebuilt as a Baroque palace, although some medieval portions survived; laid seige to again in 1849 and was burnt out; and rebuilt again in the 19th century only to be once more reduced to ruins during the seige of Budapest 1944-45, and gutted during the Communist regime of the 1950s. It was finally rebuilt and restored between the 1960s-80s.

The castle now contains two museums - Budapest History Museum including the Medieval Royal Palace, and the Hungarian National Gallery.

After crossing the Chain Bridge, there is a funicular to climb the hill to the castle

The Patrol Of The Guards is held every day at noon at the southern gate of Sandor-palota (Alexander Palace), the building in which the President of The Republic of Hungary works.
The guards wear the same traditional green uniform (and hat with crane's feather) as the Crown Guards in the Parliament and they perform a 10-minute patrol. The patrol begins and ends with flourish of trumpets.

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Called Magyar Nemzeti GAllery-it is inside the royal Buda Castle. There are a number of great items inside. They include many lovely paintings, and sculptures. It has 6,000 paintings, 2,100 sculptures, and thousands of drawings. There are three main very large floors and the grand staircase is worth the entry alone. This museum opened in the Buda Palace in 1957 and has been updated since. The stairs and a lot of the building floors are of rich, fabulous red marble, and railings have designs in hardwoods. It is one of the best in Europe, if the time permits to study the fabulous items. The center displays are unique, with glass figures hanging from strings from the top of the dome; shown below. Cost is 800 Huff and open 10-6 except Mondays.