Horler Miklós: Budapest 1. budai királyi palota 1. Középkori idomtégla töredékek (Magyarország építészeti töredékeinek gyűjteménye 4. Budapest, 1995) (Magyarország építészeti töredékeinek gyűjteménye 4. Budapest, 1998)

András Végh: Medieval Terracotta finds from the royal Palace of Buda

her husband King Sigismund of Luxemburg proceeded with the works. We must assume that under the unstable political circumstances of the early fifteenth century building activity slowed down, if it did not altogether stop, to pick up again only in the 1410s. Unfortunately, our attempts at dating the terracottas do not enlighten the building history of the royal palace much, since the results of our examinations do not allow to suggest a strict chronology.

72 To decide about the original situation we may rely on those demolition deposits in which the terracottas were found. Most important among these were those which contained the fallen down material of a sixteenth century wall in Dry Moat II, and the eighteenth century demolition deposit in the Southern and Western Inner Wards and Dry Moat I. As has already been stated, the debris excavated from Dry Moat II comes from the fallen structure of a tower and adjoining gate house. The courtyards in the south and west were enclosing the Stephen's castle, while Dry Moat I turns our attention to the west wing of the Courtyard I. Indeed, this is the best place to suggest for the arched palace façade, reconstructed from the excavated fragments. It is unfortunate that the part of the Western Inner Ward, where we might hope to find remains of the demolished palace, remains, for the time being, covered. It is remarkable, how hardly any terrcotta was unearthed in the Eastern Inner Ward, where the debris otherwise yielded numerous architectural fragments.

73 On this basis we may conclude that the east façade, and for that matter the Stephen's Castle and the east wing of the Courtyard I, were not contracted of terracotta bricks of this group. (Not so with items of Group II, though). Thus the west façade remains as the last possibility, more precisely

—and based on the above said

—the west wing of the Courtyard I, and maybe the buildings on its south side. Based on finds near the chapel, and in the walls of the furnace in the west wing of the Courtyard I we may presume that parts of the façades were rebuilt during the reign of King Matthias I Corvinus. It was the Renaissance remodelling of the palace when we know for certain that the façades were rebuilt. Only a few new buildings were then raised, but several of the previous façades got modernized, in particular those of the wings enclosing the Courtyard I.

74 VII. SECOND GROUP There is a distinct group of terracotta pieces of smaller number. Most of these pieces were unearthed near the pillar south from the chapel (Cat. 100.724-780). Their size, which is close to that of a regular brick, and detailed moulding is characteristic. The latter are clearly distinct from those of the pieces in Group I: the parts of the mouldings are closer to each other and include a combination of bowtel and fillet next to the bead and grooves apparent on pieces of the first group. These pieces had been painted white, not read. The pieces are fragments of windows, cornices and piers, which all may have formed parts of a façade. Based on some remarkable data of the excavations we may link these pieces to the former library building of the palace. This stood, according to Naldo Naldini, whose work has already been discussed, on the first floor of the wing standing on the south side of the chapel.

75 It is exactly here that most of the bricks of this smaller size were unearthed from an eighteenth century demolition layer covering the Eastern Inner Ward.

76 This indicates that the brick must come from one of the surrounding buildings, which once also included the library. This however is only a suggestion which remains to be proved. VIII. THIRD GROUP During the excavations directed by László Gerevich, nineteen fragments of a festoon and three others of a coat of arms were unearthed in the ditch of the drawbridge of the tower at the Southen Round Bastion (Cat. 100.781-784).

77 All of these finds are now missing, except one fragment of the coat of arms and two other small ones of the festoon. Nevertheless, these are important enough to merit examination in detail, during which we shall rely on the photographs that have survived showing most of them. The festoon is typically