Budapest Régiségei 24/1. (1976)

KUTATÁSTÖRTÉNET = HISTORICAL SURVAY OF THE RESEARCHES = ISTORIÂ ISSLEDOVANIÂ - Gerevich László: A pesti és budai Vár 43-58

LÁSZLÓ GERE VIC H THE PEST AND BUDA CASTLES The expression "castle of Pest" frequently occurs in Hungarian chronicles and documents, and for that very reason the literature on the subject, especially since the beginning of the 19th century, attempted to determine the place of that castle relying upon historical data, moreover, even upon archaeological traces. Guesswork was taken for certainty, when in 1932-41 and 1944 a Roman bridge-head: the groundwalls of a Roman camp and some of its towers were unearthed near today' s Parish Church on the left, Pest side of the Danube. As the Romanesque tower of that church, dating from the close of the 12th century, moreover, its foundation walls under the Gothic sanctuary coincided with the corner of the camp, it was presumed that the latter had still been used in the Arpadian age and that it was the "... castrum quod dicitur Pest.

.. ", granted to the Volga Bulgarian lords Billa and Bak s by prince Taksony. A more thorough examanation of the remains of the groundwalls convinced the author that originally the foundations of a trefoiled building had been pulled down for the new arc of the sanctuary of the later church, as this is indicated by the semicircular arch survived in the northern side even today. The age of the trefoiled sanctuary (trichora) cannot be exactly determined any more since it has been covered with buildings but, also according to the authentic St. Gellért legend which dates from a later time, in the year 1046 the pre-Romanesque church still existed. In the author* s opinion the trichora was built on the eastern semicircular foundations of that church. Some of the carved stones of the latter have survived. A fragment of one of its jambs decorated with interlacing was recarved at the time of its rebuilding in the 12th century, about the year 1200. The design of its groundplan shows that the church could not have existed simultaneously with the Roman castrum. This also appears from the fact that the area of the one-time castrum is covered by a 11-12th century cemetery. Consequently, the cemetery was located round the church, but this could have ensued only after the latter had fallen into decay and had been demolished. While on the Pest side, on the left bank of the Danube - namely, the settlement on the right bank of the river was similarly called "portus of Pest" (1046) - the castle could not be found, on the right bank, on today's Castle Hill five columns 7 m. in height and 1 m. in diameter were discovered by the author (1952), as a result of the 1946-63 excavations. Till then the columns were covered in consequence of a threefold reconstruction during the Middle Ages. Both the coursed building technique of the columns and the form of their footings and heads ending in conic drums are indicative of the 11-12th centuries. There are numerous analogies of them mainly in Normandy and also in the central part of France; Duravel (Quercy), the cathedral of Auxerre, Tours, Saint Benoit-sur-Loire, Mont Saint Michel, Narbonne, Chateauxme

illant (Berry), etc. The period in which they were current lasted to the end of the 11-12th centuries. The stone benches of the several times reconstructed castle wall, which ran parallel with the river and protected the ferry, similarly refer to a 12th century origin.The rounded backs of the benches repeat the forms of inverted cushion (block) capitals. A number of minor finds and coins date from the same period the first years of the 12th century. Even more important than this beneath the walls from the ages of the Anjou and King Sigismund, at the rare spots where one could dig under the medieval levels, vast remains of demolished walls and separating layers dated with early finds could be found. Even the walls erected in King Sigismund' s time contained stones of earlier periods, thus large-size ashlars from the palaces demolished earlier were built 55