The Castle
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| After
the
Mongolian conquest in the 13th century, King Béla
IV. ordered fortresses from stone to be built. The fortress of Buda was
also founded at that time. The castle reached its
golden age during the rule of the renaissance king, Matthias. He had it
enlarged and transformed to a palace. Later, during the
Turkish occupation of Hungary, it was under Turkish rule for over 150
years. Not even the Habsburgs cared much about it, as the empire was
ruled from Vienna. During the second world war it was badly damaged. |
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The Palace
was founded
around 1247, but the royal seat was in Visegrád
until the 15th century. It went under major reconstructions several
times. Firstly, King Matthias converted the fortification to a palace,
later Maria Theresia had it rebuilt and enlarged. In the 19th century
the famous Hungarian architect Miklós Ybl got the comission
to reconstruct it. From the original fittings unfortunately nothing has
left. Today the buildings house the National Gallery, the
National Library, the Ludwig Contemporary Collection and the Historical
Museum.
From the panorama terrace there is a magnificent view on the Pest
side.
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One way
of
getting to the palace is by the funicular next
to the Tunnel, which has a 95 metres long, 48% steep track and offers
an astonishing panorama.
The
Dísz tér
is to be found on the northern side of the palace. It
was the place of the market during the middle ages, the place where
executions were performed too.
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Szentháromság
tér (Holy Trinity
square) is
situated in front of the Matthias
Church,
it is the place, where all major streets of the castle district meet.
In the middle of the Szentháromság tér
a Holy Trinity coloumn
was errected to
commemorate the plague epidemic in 1709. The first Town Hall of Buda
faces the square, which was built after the end of the Turkish
occupation.
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Off the
beaten track in the smaller side streets one can still feel the
atmosphere of old ages, you can see hidden courtyards, signs of the
guilds, beautifully reconstructed citizenhouses. Tóth
Árpád sétány also worth a
walk. The Castle district of Buda is part of the world heritage since
1987.
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