Buza Péter: Spring and Fountains - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1994)
Hans Seybold, the chronicler of Mátyás and Beatrix’s wedding ceremony, mentions the ornamental fountain in the Castle’s courtyard in 1476. It was by this fountain that Buda’s Jewish citizens greeted the royal couple. Miklós Istvánffy writes in his history that the soldiers of Ulászló II filled the fountain with the chopped-off heads of their Turkish opponents. This nauseated Queen Anna so much that she would never again drink the fountain’s water. The fountain’s Hungarian name, Csatornás-kút [Channel Fountain], was a clear reference to the pipeline starting in the hills above. In 1517 the Florentine artist Andrea Ferucci carved an ornamental fountain for Lajos II. A 1525 source mentions that a certain Master Orbán Csatornás was given forty-six forints for lead, iron and timber with which to repair the pipeline. In 1591 an envoy of the emperor makes mention of the decorative fountain in the interior courtyard of the palace. He observes that water would flow through eight pipes into the fountain, albeit at that time it was not in use. Neither could Evlia Cselebi, a chronicler of Turkish times, leave the white marble fountain in the palace unmentioned. He recounts that the upper basin, which resembled a bronze cup, rested on the backs of huge snails. Cselebi describes the fountain, presumably the work of Italian masters, as a magnificent sight. It is only natural that Bonfini, King Mátyás' chronicler, should also describe the palace’s ornaments. Among these he mentions another fountain with a marble basin. The fountain itself is made of some kind of ore and there is, on top, the statue of Pallas in tucked-up clothes. In the 1930s, fragments of another Renaissance ornamental fountain of the palace were found. These included the capital and the foot of a tallish column, and a pillar stone with gargoyles in the shape of grotesque human heads on its four corners. There is plenty of evidence to prove that during Mátyás’ reign and, as long as its products lasted, and even afterwards when the glory of Hungary was on the wane, in the palace and the Castle district around it, several, maybe as many as a dozen, ornamental fountains decorated the public spaces and palace yards of the area. Then they disappeared once again, for a long time, from the stage of everyday life. This time, however, not without leaving behind at least one representative. Illés Fountain, for example, was provided with an unusually richly ornamented building, one much larger than the well- houses in Buda, at a time when ornamental fountains were no longer in fashion either in Buda or in Pest. The reliefOrnamental foüntains in king Mátyás’ court 20
