Tanulmányok Budapest Múltjából 31. (2003)
A MÚLT RÉTEGEI - A SZENT GYÖRGY TÉR TÖRTÉNETE - Magyar Károly: A budavári Szent György tér és környékének kiépülése : történeti vázlat 1526-tól napjainkig 43-126
A BUDAVÁRI SZENT GYÖRGY TÉR ÉS KÖRNYÉKÉNEK KIÉPÜLÉSE The Formation of St. George Square in Buda and the Changing Face of It (1526-2003) The End of the Middle Ages: 1526-1541 Undoubtedly, it was the St. George Square and its surrounding area that have changed the most within the walls of the Castle-district of Buda. Almost each element of this area (stretching north from the northern curtain wall of the former Royal Palace right up to the present day Dísz Square and forming about 1/5-1/6 of the total surface/area of the Castle-district) has been altering from the end of the Middle Ages onwards. The proportion between the sites covered and uncovered by buildings has basically changed, as well as have the contours of the gradually shaping square and the buildings around it. And, beside these physical changes also all the institutions and functions related to the area have entirely altered. .. Changes were almost continuously taking place on the site all along the Middle Ages as this can be pointed out by the archaeological excavations: for different, unknown reasons some houses were demolished time-by-time. But, as it seems now, none of these demolitions - with the exception of two cases - meant larger scale. To understand the two, we must see the general character of the site before they happened, i.e. before the first third of the 15 th c. Just like today there had originally been two streets leading from north to south, towards the Royal Palace, (the presence of which here can be proved only from around the middle of the 14 th c. !). The eastern one had been (and was even later) St. John's Street (named after the Franciscan friary standing here from the 13 th a), while the other one had been Jews' Street (also from the same age - later named as St. Sigismund's Street). Around the turn of the 14-15 th cc. these streets were longer towards the south: the border between the city and the Royal Palace was still situated much towards the south, at the so-called Dry moat. No traces of any square can be pointed out on the site at that time: both sides of the two streets (and so the area between them, too) was covered by plots and buildings. This situation started to change around 1410, when King Sigismund of Luxemburg founded and built a new royal chapel dedicated to Holy Virgin and St. Sigismund. This practically meant, that a part of the former Jewish quarter was entirely demolished (see around the center of the present square) and the foundations of the new church were put down on the ruins of the destroyed houses. It seems that almost at the same time a similar, but longer and gradual demolition-process was started on the southern side of the area. As a result of this by about 1460-70 a larger part of the city here was demolished and on the place of the former burgher-houses a huge open space was taking shape next to the Royal Palace. Finally, somewhere between 1470-1540 (most likely after 1530) this space was cut from the city by a massive wall - the northern curtain wall — and annexed to the palace as a northern court, or the 'northern forecourt '. This act on the other side became of great importance for the future: the northern curtain wall became the southern border of the square to be formed here only later. And this has been the case since that time, despite the fact that a great part of the curtain wall was pulled down more than a hundred years ago. 117
