Budapest Régiségei 15. (1950)

Gerevich László: Gótikus házak Budán 121-238

valuable data inform us about the rents as interest of a capital investment, in their relation to the earnings. The value of simpler burghers'houses was about 40—60 silver marks, the aristocrats'houses cost 15.000—30.000 golden flo- „ rins at the beginning of the fifteenth century. At the same time we hear only of a single house worth 10.000 golden florins. Suburban houses seldom cost more than 20—25 florins. Other important data are furnished by those wills,, in which the houses were bequeathed to several persons, for in these cases, the different parts of the houses were described in detail. These descriptions correspond to the medieval ground plans we were able to sketch during the research. The Gothic houses in Buda can be traced back to a main type, while there are a few examples of another type. Generally the main front is facing the street, the main axis of the house running parallel to it. The wide doorway was placed in the middle of the house-front. The central axis of the facade was formed by the doorway, i. e. the barrel-vault of the doorway, which cut the house into two identical parts. At both sides of the gate were one or two rooms. In the direction of the axis of the doorway there were also one or two rooms, one behind the other. We found no medieval staircase on its original site, only remnants, e. g. windows opening outwardly. The staircases opened sometimes from the doorway, with a vertical axis. The doorway led generally to the courtyard, which was bordered to the right and left, or only in one direction, by a narrower wing of building. These wings were built generally later, as annexes, to the front facing the courtyard. , In most cases these annexes are already built in Baroque style, but even if we have found no medieval traces we may presume that the wooden outhouses and stables described in the records stood here. Opposite the house, the courtyard ended in a stone enclosure or a smaller building. In this way, a long, narrow inner courtyard was formed. This long characteristic building site developed from the medieval agriculture, from the fields. As the records also inform us, the rooms on the*ground floor were often vaulted. It was occupied by the workshops and the goods were also stored here. The dark closets point to the same purpose. If only one family inhabited the house, the kitchen was also on the ground floor. At the end of the fifteenth century, these shops had iron doors with stone framing. In consequence of smaller and unadorned windows, the façade of the ground floor differed from that of the upper story. The windows, opening to the street^ were framed with rebated stones, nearly square in shape, sometimes they had a lattice as well. The rooms on the ground floor were vaulted and seldom had a stove. We know many examples of these vaults. The commonest is the brick barrel vault with a low springing line of 150—160 cm, or the brick cross vault without ribs, with a deeply receding impost. The cross ribbed vault occurs only once in the doorway. The barrel vault terminates at the doorway in quoins, toward the courtyard in a rebated groined arch. The remains of consoles for supporting beams show that originally the ground floor often had a flat wood ceiling, but these were vaulted in the Late-Gothic period or even later. The same is true for the vaults on the upper stories. The most important room of the upper stories is the dining-hall used for festivals or banquets. In the records it figures as »pallacium depictum« and being the most spacious room of fhe house, it occupied the greatest part of the house-front. Tight entered through large, often divided, windows with rich carvings characteristic for TateGothic art. But sometimes, under the simplifying influence of Renaissance style the windows were square — headed and the stone frames had no complicated crosssection. The windows on the upper stories differ from those on the ground floor in 233