Budapest Régiségei 17. (1956)

ANYAGKÖZLÉSEK - Zakariás G. Sándor: Adatok a budavári kutak történetéhez 299-324

•S. G. ZAKARIÁS A CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF POST-MEDIEVAL WELLS IN THE FORTRESS OF BUDA The water supply of the Fortress of Buda was always a difficult and important problem. The famous and technically excellent medieval water conduit on the Svábhegy (»Swabian Hill«) as well as the mechanism for raising water from the Danube deteriorated during the Turkish occupation, to be destroyed so completely during the siege of 1686 that their restoration could not be taken in hand until 1716 when it was carried out under the management of C. Kerschensteiner. The reconstructed aquaeduct conveyed the water of the Város-kút («Town Well») and the Sváb-kút («Swabian Well»), the latter vaulted over since then, from the Svábhegy through a four kilometre long conduit across the Krisztina-város («Christine Town») and the Vérmező («Field of Blood») to the Szentháromság-tér («Holy Trinity-square») in the Fortress. The well, the water of which was raised through a conduit operating on the principle of communicating vessels, was the work of the stone dresser R. Mossleuthner, while the statue of St. Ignatius, adorning it, was the work of art of the sculptor A. Hörger. It was this well, allegedly of red marble, which supplied the inhabitants of the Fortress of Buda with fresh spring water until 1777. No pictorial representation or plan of this well has remained. The water-raising mechanism and the water of the private wells, worked by means of piimps, were rather second rate. The growth of the population, and especially the transfer of the university from Nagyszombat to Buda, compelled the Municipal Council to improve and amplify the water supply. H. Tumler, a hydraulic engineer, was invited on December 6, 1776, to draw up adequate designs ; following the invitation, he soon moved to Buda and was granted full municipal rights there. The work of extension was carried out under his direction, and in its course the water of a third well the still existing Király-kut («King's Well»), was connected up with the general water network. The commision to construct a new mechanism to raise water from the Danube was given to F. Kempelen. The increased supply of water obtained from the amplified waterworks, which Were put into operation on November 3, 1777, raised the necessity of the old well being replaced by a new one. An estimate of the costs, together with the plans of three wells, was submitted by the stone dresser F. Endl already on September 19, 1776 ; one of the plans is still in the possession of Archive No. 1. of the Budapest Municipality. The plan is the work of J. H. Jäger, one of the architects of the Zichy palace in Óbuda, who cooperated repeatedly with F. Endl. Jäger's design (Fig. 1) is purely baroque in style, and provides for rich sculptural embellishments. Costs were estimated at 955,03 florins. Sculptural work could, of course, not be included in a price as cheap as this. It is therefore to be assumed that Jäger took the statues from the old,demolished well. If this assumption is correct, we have before us the representation of the hitherto unknown statues of Hörger as depicted in Jäger's project. The designs of the other two wells, annexed to Jäger's estimate, cannot be found. But this same file contains one more plan : it bears neither initials nor signature, and is the design of a simple octagonal basin with a single stairstep leading to it. (Fig. 2) A glance at the drawing makes it clear that it represents the same well as is depicted in the print of K. Schwind (Fig. 3). Also a photograph, in the custody of the «Modern Section» of the Municipal Historical Museum (Fig. 5), shows this same well. Looking at the pavement in the picture we can see the special covering that was placed above the conduits. The minutes of the meetings of the Buda Municipal Council and the accounts which have been preserved reveal that the Városház- («Town Hall») well was designed by K. Adami, a stone dresser born at Como and a resident of Süttő, who sculptured the well from marble quarried at Süttő ; he was paid a fee of 1300 florins for the well, subsequently, 110 florins for the pedestal of St. Ignatius which was provisionally placed on it. The reign of Joseph II was an eventful period of Buda's development in general, and of the history of the town's water supply in particular. After the dissolution of the religious orders all higher administrative instances of the country were transferred to Buda, and the consequent increase in the water consumption imperatively required a further extension of the whole existing system of water supply. This work, too, was carried out under the management of H. Tumler. Wider pipes were substituted for the old ones, and the water conduits extended through the Országház(«Parliament») street to the Ferences- («Franciscan») square. A wooden head to this well 21* 323