Budapest Régiségei 31. (1997)

Magyar Károly: A középkori budai királyi palota fő építési korszakainak alaprajzi rekonstrukciója : 1. közlemény 101-120

THE RECONSTRUCTURED GROUNDPLANS OF THE MAIN ARCHITECTURAL PERIODS OF THE MEDIEVAL ROYAL PALACE OF BUDA INTRODUCTION To establish the main periods of the building of the royal palace of Buda has been a constant issue since the beginning of the excavations. Apart from the much heated debates of interpretation and localization of the earliest (13th c.) palace experts have come to agree on the later stages. The periods subject to the agreement and their architectural features can be outlined as follows: Mid-fourteenth century: The "Istvánvár" ("Stephen's Castle") was a relatively small and simple format residence of the Angevin prince István (Stephen) Between 1360 and 1380: king Louis the Great extended the "Castle", he built up a representative royal palace. Between 1410 and 1430: king Sigismund 's palace was built up according to the "standards" of European royal courts both in measures and in artistic value. This outlay of the building complex remained significant for the following centuries. Between 1470 and 1490: Due to the constructions going on under king Matthias to the greatest part of the palace was given a Renaissance outlook. Changes of the groundplan, though negotiated, are by no means significant. Between 1490 and 1541: Under the Jagiellonians (1490-1526) there were some more Renaissance parts added but later the emphasis was gradually put on developing the fortifications. The ground plan - apart from the northern part - was only slightly disturbed. Whereas most experts analysing the major periods of building suggest greater or smaller changes in the ground plan too, up to the latest times there have only been few of them who have properly delineated the changes stepby-step. No wonder this is so, as the limited number of archaeological data and the written sources cannot provide all encompassing insight. Thus if one tries to trace back the main stages of building through the changes of the ground plan, logical deductions have to be made to bridge the gaps. THE PROBLEMS OF THE EARLY ROYAL PALACE (second half of the 13 th. first third of the 14th centuries) It is well known that there are two opinions opposing each other concerning the localization of the early royal palace. Between the two extremes of László Gerevich and László Zolnay there have been several other, even more elaborate standpoints. Though the writer of the article is convinced that within the new settlement of Buda, founded after the Tartars' invasion (1241-1242), there must have been a royal palace, or at least a kind of royal residence, he cannot regard any of the opinions convincingly supported by archaeology. The fact that both at the NE and S corner of the long, triangular plateau of Castle hill finds and objects of the early period have been discovered is not sufficient to prove unambiguously the presence of the palace. On the other hand neither of them can exclude this supposition. It can also be assumed that both areas were royal properties. Trying to reconstruct the architectural structure and the ground plans of the buildings of the southern part of castle hill in the second half of the 13th. and beginning of 14th centuries one has to admit that the objects related or dated to the given period are not sufficient to build on. Thus one has to be contented with the mere representation of these fragments upon a geomorphological map. The in situ objects that due to their possible early dating are described in the article in topographical order can be divided into five groups: 1. remnants of built fortications 2. fragments of other buildings, 3 moats 4. pits 5. layers of levelling THE SOUTHERN PALACE AROUND 1350: THE "STEPHEN'S CASTLE" While the views of experts about the early palace are diverse there has been more or less concord concerning the palace building of the middle of the 14th century, because the first remains that can be relatively well interpreted for archaelogy and the history of architecture have come from this period. Most experts agree that the building that in later sources is referred to as "Stephen's tower" or "Stephen's Castle" was related to Prince Stephen of Anjou (1332-1354), the younger brother of King Louis the Great ( king of Hungary: 1342-1382). The Stephen's Castle was built on the most southern part of the plateau of the Castle hill, where the buildings were placed around a trapezoid ward , the so called Little ward (length: 24-25 meters, width 7.4 and 6.8 meters) and thus the whole complex of the buildings could have had a slightly trapezoid groundplan, too. For some reasons, the great tower - the Stephen's tower - standing in the southwest corner of the architectural unit had a different orientation

. The total area of the building complex was about 40^48 m x 22/18 m plus the Stephen's tower (11.1x11.9 m). Supposedly the rest of the trapezoid plateau northwards bordered by the so called I. Dry moat used to belong to the complex as a bailey. To sum it up, The Stephen's Castle consisted of a closed complex of palace-wings, a great tower on the southwest, and a bailey on the north. The "castle image" was given basically by the tower. 720