Budapest Régiségei 15. (1950)

Gerevich László: Gótikus házak Budán 121-238

LÁSZLÓ GEREVICH GOTHIC DWELLING-HOUSES IN BUDA The study of the historical morphology of old Hungarian towns is still in a backward state, although, besides its archaeological and historical importance, it may offer valuable sociological results enabling us to describe the different classes of society which lived in the various towndistricts and suburbs. The basis of the morphological study is the examination of the single houses and lots, which also furnish important facts for the history of art and throw a light on the circumstances and material situation of the different classes of society. _This last point of view has been particularly neglected. . . The Castle-Hill, an old district of Budapest, suffered even more than the other parts of the town by the Fascist attack. The desolate houses offered a good opportunity for archaeological research. It became evident that, after having driven out the Turks, in 1686, the new settlers did not rebuild the houses, only repaired them and hid them later under the Baroque decoration. We stripped the houses of their baroque garment and laid open the Gothic mouldings and carvings. We separated, the old walls from the recent ones and marked their ground plan. After having indicated all.the medieval walls and other details on the map of the district, we got an archeologically proved medieval plan, which enabled us to follow the development of the morphology of the town. A few evidences will throw a light on the growth of the town-complex that is today called Budapest. The oldest town is Óbuda, the next one Pest, which, in the Middle Ages, lay not only on the left bank, but on the right bank too. The Castle-Hill (Várhegy) , the scene of our present research, developed last. The town was built from a smaller settlement by King Béla IV. After the Tartar invasion, he surrounded it by a wall, but it became a royal residence only later, during the reign of Louis the Great, and later Sigismund. The centres of these three settlements date from different periods and are of different character/The development of Óbuda is in connection with the adjoining Aquincum ruins. In the centre of the settlement of Pest, on the left bank, new excavations laid open a Roman castrum. This district obtained an economical importance only in the late Middle Ages, when the commercial traffic increased because of ferry transportation. The third centre, the Castle in Buda, became a town only in the second half of the twelfth century, as a result of the conscious building activity of King Béla IV and the menacing experiences of the Tartar invasion. The morphology of a town depends on the knowledge of the various dwelling house types, in which the different classes of society lived, and of the development of these types. This research is still inadéul?