Szablyár Péter: Step by step - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2010)
Royal Stairs - stairways in Várkert (Castle Garden)
The new edifice was accessible from the palace by way of a stairway-pavilion. Hausz- mann soon received another commission, this time from Queen Elizabeth herself, who ordered the construction of a semi-timber ("fachwerk”) peasant cottage later to be called the "Hungarian House” where the "Dutch Peasant Cottage" (built in the place of King Sigismund's gatehouse partly from its materials) had stood. It was here that the queen wished to take a rest whenever she went out for a walk in the garden. From the late 1890s on, Hauszmann was allowed to continue building the ornamental stairs which lead from the conservatory to the peasant cottage and then on to the lowermost level of the garden. The stairway was divided into two flights in two places. At the upper point where the stairway widens out, there is a Romantic grotta (artificial cave) enclosed with a well springing from a boar-head. At the lower widening, there was a fishpond surrounded by a group of rocks. It was in these surroundings that the first garden reception was ever given in Buda to mark the first visit paid by Francis Joseph 1 to Buda in 1852. According to contemporary reports the buffet was set up in the "peasant cottage" near the "boar's well”. From this time on, it was this social function that came to be the last reception, attended by the leading writers, actors and composers as well as members of the upper house, politicians and church dignitaries, before the summer set in. In later years, when the number of guests reached four of five thousand, the venue of the event was moved to the square affording a unique panoramic view between the statue of Prince Eugene of Savoy and the Habsburg Stairs. ■ Castle Gardens Bazaar — the splendour of the main entrance 12
