Budapest Régiségei 35/2. (2002)
KÖZLEMÉNYEK - Irásné Melis Katalin: Régészeti kutatások a 15. századi pesti városfal Károly kőrúti szakaszán : Budapest V. Károly körút 28-30. 549-585
IRÁSNÉ MELIS KATALIN EXCAVATIONS AT THE KAROLY BOULEVARD SECTION OF PEST'S 15™ CENTURY CITY WALL (28-30 Károly boulevard, 5 th district, Budapest) The City Hall of Budapest is the largest building in Pest's center. The 18 th century Baroque palace's southern facade and main entrance open to Városház street. Its backyard - in the north - is made up of plots 28-30 Károly boulevard. Built between 1716 and 1741, the building originally functioned as a military hospital and almshouse, one of the largest in the Austrian provinces. Its final form was the result of the work of Viennese master builder E. A. Martinelli. The northern yard was closed down by a 160 m long section of the medieval city wall. Outbuildings - for the most part complete with cellars - were attached to the wall's inner side, the outer side was left vacant. At the end of the 18 th century the building became a garrison for grenadiers and a large manege was constructed in the yard. In 1894 Budapest bought the garrison from the military and began to reconstruct the building into a City Hall. The medieval city wall - which up till that point functioned as a fence - was pulled down, the attached 18 th century outbuildings were demolished. New outbuildings were erected in their place, these became dilapidated by the end of the 20 th century The Budapest Mayor's Office ordered the redevelopment of the City Hall's northern yard. Five buildings were subsequently demolished in the summer of 1996. The Budapest Museum of History excavated the area, which is under historical and archeological protection. The excavation - which involved an area of 24,000 square meters - was financed by the Budapest Mayor's Office. In 1996 excavations began on the inner side of the city wall's remains, a year later the outer side was also excavated. During the previous years, several archeological finds (13 th century city wall throughout the whole length of Városház street, sections of the 15 th century city wall in Semmelweis street and Fehér hajó street, parts of the 15 th century Saint Nicholas /Miklós/ church and hospital in Bárczy István street, graves of the cemetery in the City Hall's cellar, etc.) were already recovered from the area. These finds came from the Northwestern part of medieval Pest. THE 15™ CENTURY CÍTY WALL After debris from the present day construction was removed, the top of the medieval wall-remains appeared between the 18 th-20 th century cellar walls. On the medieval wall's inner side the modern cellar walls formed narrow straits. Within these straits, all archeologically significant objects that were once connected to the city wall before 1686 had been destroyed. We extracted the city wall from the modern walls and - after the excavation was finished -filled up the site to the 15 th century city wall' walking level. Fortunately some of the modern buildings next to the city wall did not have cellars. At these places we were able to excavate house and oven remains from the period when the settlement did not yet have city walls (12^-15^ centuries). We also excavated the city wall's walking levels from the 15 th-17 th centuries and the layers of the filling ins associated with the city wall's construction and various reconstructions. The edge of the 17 th century trench - dug along the city wall's inner side - was also found. We came closer to determining the city wall's date of building. From a 2-3 m thick layer fortunately preserved on the city wall's inner side we were able to infer the various ways the area was utilized. Prior to the Mongol invasion of Hungary in 1241 there were gardens separated by ditches here, a metalworks was later established on the outer side of the L3 Ul century Pest city wall (remains of the wall in Városház street). In 1241 all was destroyed. By the middle of the 15 th century wood-structured houses with cob walls had been constructed. These were pulled down before the construction of the city wall and their places were filled up to the 15 th century city wall's projected walking level. However, the city wall's date of building is not shown by these ruins, but rather by the remains and archeological finds of the houses which were constructed in the part of the city developed after the city wall had been finished. The line of a new street running parallel to the city wall in the area parcelled out during the second half of the 15 th century was designated. The street connected the present day Semmelweis and Fehérhajó streets, both of which are of a medieval origin. The medieval street's layers were also excavated. From the bottom three layers we recovered finds typical of the last third of the 15 th century Especially important were the finds of domestic waste, which were carried out from the houses along the street into the potholes in the street's layers. The thinner top three layers were in the same height with the city wall's walking level between the second half of the 15 th century and 1526 (the burning up after the defeat to the Turks at the battle of Mohács). Hungarian archeological finds typical of the first half of the 16 th century dominated in layer 4. Fragments of Turkish origin appeared and prevailed in layer 5. Layer 6 came from the period before 1686. We also found remains of buildings from before the city wall's construction on the wall's outer side. We recovered the 15 th and 16 th century layers connected to the city wall. These layers contained the remains of a smithy that had been attached to the city wall and partially lowered into the ground. We found no signs of a trench in the area close to the city wall. 570
