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 We have much less written sources related to the area stretching before the palacecompound. Werbőczy, the former chancellor - now the Judge of the whole Hungarian nation (trusted by the sultan) - still resided here, in his palace but for a very short time: he died within two months. Above this no other details relating to the houses and their owners are known from the age directly after the occupation, even if- like within city - some elements of the former population might have stayed back here. The most drastic changes happened inevitably to the ecclesiastical institutions. Apart from one, all medieval churches of the city were robbed, 'dismantled' from their Christian symbols and decorations and than turned to serve as Muslim mosques. That was the case with the quarter on dispute, too. Already in 1555 the former St. John's church of the Franciscans was mentioned - without any further detail - as a mosque. Later it became the Pasha- or Serai djami. This could happen to the St. Sigismund church, although we have only a much later mention of it as Küchük (Little) djami. An other, basic change came to the character of the place with the siege of 1598. Although the Christian military did not succeed in reconquering Buda, but they occupied the suburbs, and because of this the residence of the pasha - the serai - was moved back to the much better protected upper city, i.e. to the former St. John's street. It was situated on the northern side of the St. John's church, most likely at least partly upon the former Werbőczy-palace. (A part of the pashas' palace, including its bath, has been already excavated.) Since that time the church/djami was used as the pashas' private djami. (It seems the church was entirely separated from its earlier cloister. The later one was obviously used and lived by the Turks - as this has been clearly proved by the excavations - but we do not know its exact function.) The residential character of the quarter however, was even stronger, since the deputy of the pasha, the kethüda lived also in the same street, just in front of the Pasha serai. Not far from here, just next to the Pasha djami there stood a fountain, the only one in the city that worked with the water of the Danube pumped here up through a pipeline by a kind of machinery. (The waterworks stood below, on the bank of the river. These all might have had late medieval origination!) Traces of Turkish (to be more exact: Turkish-age) life have been brought to light by the excavations almost everywhere in the area. Townspeople of that age (most likely mainly of Balkan origination) in most cases used the medieval houses, but usually altered them according to their wishes. Oftentimes they divided the larger medieval rooms. Smaller outbuildings made of lighter structures (wattle and daub, adobe, etc.) quite often surrounded the medieval stone houses. Perhaps the most characteristic features of the age - in archaeological sense - are the refuse pits, several dozens of which have been discovered during the excavations. Most of them served originally - in all probability - as storage-pits, or sometimes as wells, but later they were filled with garbage. Describing the Turkish age of the area on dispute, one shall mention the fortifications, especially those of the western side. Here the long section of citywall, stretching from the northern curtain-wall of the (former) Royal Palace to the Fehérvári gate - as we have seen - was strongly hit by artillery fire even during the late medieval sieges. This is much truer for the Turkish age sieges (1598,1602,1603, 1684 and the final one: 1686). The collapsed section of the late medieval city-wall 119