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

Renaissance in character. Its different varieties of fruits and sharply pointed leaves form solid bunches, bordered by a row of broad, Hat leaves on both sides. The decoration appears on a slim, concave face, and the reverse side of the pieces are curved, also. Two out of the three fragments of the coat of arms are known to us only from the inventories. These are fragments of the helmet, and two of the shields with the fesse of a coat-of-arms. The third one is the dexter base of an ogee formed shield with a quaterly partition, with the detail of a likewise quaterly heart shield in its upper right-hand corner. The device is a specific form of the Dalmatian crest with only one leopard's head above, and two below. The device on the escutcheon depicts two paws above, and the detail of a small, unfluted mound below (Fig. 377.). We presume missing fragments to have been part of the same crest, as we do the fragments showing the Dalmatian leopards.The described fragments lay scattered in the fill of the inner pit of the tower at the Round Bastion, at a depth between 1.5 metres and 6 metres. Together with them there were found elements of the fallen gatehouse, the fragment of a Renaissance balustrade, and some Turkish earthenware. The arch stones found here prove that the pit was filled with the fallen masonry of the Gate Tower. The Renaissance stone could easily have fallen from the tower, also, since in the wall that still stands there are other Renaissance items used as building material. The destruction would have taken place in the course of one of the sieges, most probably in 1686, although no find so far can be dated with any exactitude. Nevertheless, it is known that in 1686 the main target of the Bavarian troops was the Southern Round Bastion, which they destroyed almost completely, and then that Gate Tower was also badly damaged. The event is represented on an engraving by Flallart-Wening which shows the palace from the south side.

78 The pieces picked from the debris would have been decorating the Gate Tower and would have fallen into the pit during this siege. This suggestion is supported by the fact that no similar pieces were unearthed in other parts of the palace—with only one exception, a fragment of the festoon is known to have been among the pieces found by Alajos Hauszmann. Where it was found is uncertain. It may well have come to light during the building of a garden pavilion on the site of the former Gate Tower.

79 Style, material and decoration of the bricks found here differed fundamentally from those unearthed in large numbers elsewhere in the royal palace. While the material of the latter was homogeneous, these seem to be split into layers. Convex face surfaces are not unknown among the other bricks either, but their reverse sides are solid and straight, while those bricks found in the pit have a slim, curved slab in the back. The pattern was completed by hand, with the help of a small punch-like instrument, while the clay was still damp, and before the firing. The style of the compact bunches of fruit is likewise very different from that of the much more stylized and lighter decoration of the other bricks. The coat-of-arms provides help in dating the find. Ogee shaped shields do not occur before the sixteenth century and the partition of the inescutcheon is of chronological importance also

—since Hungarian kings in medieval times used to place their family coat-of-arms on the inescutcheon. Partitions were first used by King Vladislav II Jagiello (1490-1516); his parted inescutcheon appears on some of his coins, but otherwise the Jagiello dynasty used shields with no partition.

80 King Ferdinand I of Habsburg (1526-1564) on the rare occasions when he used a partition at all, used a per pale inescutcheon.

81 King John Zápolya (1526-1540) like his ancestors preferred the quaterly partition. The coat-of-arms of the Zápolya family consists of two earlier, independent devices, both of uncertain origin. On the tombstone of the Palatine Imre Zápolya (1487) there is a flag in the hand of the deceased. On it, the front of a rampant wolf can be seen above a series of small mounds with the moon in front of its mouth and a star behind the animal's back. Two shields were placed at the feet of the figure, one depicting a rampant unicorn.

82 On the tomb of István Zápolya (1499) the latter device appears on the flag, while the wolf is depicted on one of the shields placed at the foot of the figure, and in the quaterly partitions of the other one both heraldic animals appear in alternating positions (Fig. 43.).

83 All three forms are known from the seals of the family, the unicorn being depicted on a seal of the Palatine István from 1495, the quaterly shield on an other from 1492, while all three were used by King John.

84 The quaterly appears on the inescutcheon of his Great Seal (Fig. 44.),

85 as well as the Privy Seal of 1527.

86 The wolf is to be seen on a coat-of-arms in the Castle of Szamosújvár (now Gherla, Rumania).

87 In alternating fields of the quaterly shield on a print from Brassó (now Brasov, Rumania) dated 1529, we can see the ninetimes per fess field, the Apostolic Cross standing on the three mounds and the two heraldic animals of the Zápolya family.

88 On coins of the king the wolf, the unicorn, and the quaterly shield may all occur.

89 The only medieval ruler to use the quaterly shield, as has been shown, was John Zápolya, and in doing so he followed family traditions. It seems that we have good cause to believe that the two paws appearing in the escutcheon of the piece in question are the paws of the rearing Zápolya wolf. The small bulge lower down is probably a part of the three mounds.