Horler Miklós: Budapest 1. budai királyi palota 1. Középkori idomtégla töredékek (Magyarország építészeti töredékeinek gyűjteménye 4. Budapest, 1995) (Magyarország építészeti töredékeinek gyűjteménye 4. Budapest, 1998)

András Végh: Medieval Terracotta finds from the royal Palace of Buda

carved stones, terracotta pieces, canonballs and weapons can be considered as the demolition deposit of the palace buildings. Its contents will have fallen from the wings around the yard during the siege of 1686, and afterwards during the systematic deconstruction procedure. On the east side of this section stood the Southwestern Wing (probably the Treasury building), built during the time of King Sigismund of Luxemburg, then a cistern and hanging garden, presumably commissioned by King Matthias I Corvinus, and behind the garden the Small Courtyard and the west wing of the Stephen's Castle.

39 The piers, which once supported the hanging garden were walled in by the Turks, who set up different workshops in the accomodations thus created. The terracottas may, therefore, have originated in any of these walls. Fourty two terracotta pieces were found in the Southern Inner Ward.

40 Most of the Turkish occupation level was covered by a destruction deposit most probably dating from the 1686 siege. Above this, an other demolition deposit of the eighteenth century could also be observed. The latter contained six terracottas. Four other pieces were lifted from a Turkish brick Poor. Two further pieces were found in a Turkish pit (No. 19). The southern cellar of the Southwestern Wing (the probably Treasury building) was filled in after the demolition of the building in the 1710s. Here five terracotta pieces were excavated. 41 The site near the Royal Chapel is of outstanding archaeological importance. In front of the building north of the chapel there were thick deposit layers containing debris. In Layer 7 there occured fifteenth century waste, and also coins issued by King Sigismund of Luxemburg, King Vladislav I Jagiello, John Hunyadi regent, King Ladislaus V Habsburg, and King Matthias I Corvinus. Coins issued by the latter were in majority.

42 On this basis of this, the layer can with certainty be dated to the age of Matthias I. Corvinus. In this closed and chronologically clear assemblage one terracotta piece was found which displayed neither manufacturing faults nor any traces of mortar. It seems, therefore, to be a fragment of a sound product. Whether it was ever used cannot be established. Four terraccotta pieces were discoverd in the Turkish deposit of pits IX/1 and X.

43 A fair amount of terracottas were disclosed in front of the pillar south from the Chapel in the Eastern Inner Ward. The second and third deposit contained debris and a good number of carved stones of the demolished buildings above the courtyard.

44 The terracottas which were lifted from this site build, with the exception of a single brick, a separate group. As far as dating is concerned, the terracottas found in the walls of the furnaces in the basement of the West Wing in the Courtyard I are of specific importance (Cat. 100.449).

43 The furnaces were part of the heating system and were dated to the reign of King Matthias I.

46 Thirty one further pieces were found in the premises on the west wing of Courtyard I and in Dry Moat /,

47 All of these fragments were found in the demolition deposits of the royal palace; the earliest deposit is dated to the Turkish period. Three terracotta pieces were found in the Csonka ('Incompleted') Tower from a late deposit also containing some nineteenth century ceramics.

48 Twenty-one pieces were disclosed during the excavations of the Southern Round Bastion.

49 Within the Bastion the remains of an earlier gateway were identified. This was demolished and its walls covered at the time that the Bastion was built. In the upper part of this deposit dated to the 1530s on the basis of a majolica bowl, one terracotta was found. All other bricks were discovered in deposits later than this one dated to the Turkish period and the eighteenth century, when the walls of the bastion were being enforced. Twenty-one archaeological sites in the Northern Outer Bailey yielded sixty-three terracotta finds between 1973 and 1987. The terracotta finds in this area, and the masonry debris among which they were lying, should not be identified with the ruins of any specific building. This huge empty area of the royal palace is lying at the place of a demolished former district of the town. The material must have arrives in this location as filling following the destructions. According to the map indicating the excavated sites, most of the bricks were found at the end of the bailey nearest to Dry Moat II (Fig. 2) It has already been mentioned that the fallen masonry in Dry Moat II was used repeatedly during subsequent building periods, and for fills. It is probable that most of the bricks found in the Northern Outer Bailey also came from Dry Moat II. Unfortunately, owing to the inadequacy of the archeological records and of the documentation, no more than three sites furnish additional information concerning the bricks. Most of these pieces

—thirty-four, in fact

—were disclosed in Trench 80/9 of a medieval dwelling house.

50 Inside, there were two layers of deposit; the lower layer corresponded to the house.The debris on top (this rose above the top of the building) contained the terracottas, together with numerous coloured oven