Tanulmányok Budapest Múltjából 31. (2003)

A MÚLT RÉTEGEI - A SZENT GYÖRGY TÉR TÖRTÉNETE - Magyar Károly: A budavári Szent György tér és környékének kiépülése : történeti vázlat 1526-tól napjainkig 43-126

MAGYAR KÁROLY At the end of the Middle Ages the general character of this quarter of the city can be described as it follows: Since it was situated next to the palace-compound, it had a rather high prestige in itself, but the presence of the two ecclesiastical institutions - the St. John Franciscan friary and the St. Sigismund Royal Chapel (later acting as a provostry) - raised it even higher. The area was inhabited by some magnates, officers of the royal court, the provost and canons of St. Sigismund's chapter as well as by 'simple' burghers. Here resided István Werbőczy (having here a palace granted by the king), the chancellor of King John (János) Szapolyai. Next to his palace - between 1530-1534 - there must have been the residence of Luigi Gritti, who - as a confident of the sultan - first became the treasurer then the governor beside King John. Just like the city, the closer area under discussion suffered badly the fifteen years coming after the battle of Mohács (1526). First the Turks robbed and burned up the defenceless city, but that time they abandoned it yet. Within the next one-anda-half decade - marked by the fights between the two, 'parallel' kings of Hungary (John Szapolyai /1526-1540/ and Ferdinand of Habsburg /1526-1564/) - the rule over Buda changed four times (1526, 1527, 1529 /in this case infact two times: first the Turks occupied it from the Habsburg-party, then handed over to their vassal, King John/ 1541) and four sieges stormed its walls (1529, 1530, 1540 /this meant less devastation/, 1541). It was 1529, when the first artillery fire stroke/hit the city, but from this time onwards Buda had to face continuously with this new kind of devastating power of sieges. This particularly holds true of the quarter at issue. Since its western town-walls fell well within the range of artillery troops set up on the surrounding hills, this area became a 'popular target' of all sieges up to 1849(!). The well known woodcut of Erchard Schön made during the siege of 1541 depicts well as a great part of the late medieval western city-wall collapsed, and was replaced by a kind of improvised palisade. Now archaeological evidences have proved the authenticity of this scene, too. The Turkish Occupation -1541-1686 Although the latest, Habsburg-siege ended in failure, in this case the Sultan, who came to relieve his King John's party vassals of the siege, decided to take the control over the city for once-and-ever. This decision meant 145 years of Turkish rule in the history of Buda. The life of the Hungarian capital and naturally that of the quarter under discuss changed definitely as well. First of all the Royal Palace neighbouring the quarter from the south lost its original function. It seems that it was only the first pasha left here by the sultan himself behind, who resided among the walls. After his death his successors moved their residence out from the palace and even from the city: they lived down in a suburb, next to the bank of the Danube until the end of the 16

th c. The palace itself served as home for a part of the military garrison, and - at the same time - as an arsenal and a prison as well. It was controlled by a chief, dizdar. Occasionally Turkish councils and receptions for foreign envoys were held in the ancient halls, but step-by-step this magnificent architectural ensemble lost its medieval splendour. 118