Szablyár Péter: Sky-high - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2007)

Some special Towers

■ The Buda Cattle from the weit. Woodcut by an unknown matter

The tower sustained serious damage during the recapture of Buda in the War of Independence, too. During its reconstruction the conic reinforcement was removed, the wall rebuilt and the upper section fitted with a closure reminiscent of an Art Nouveau water tower. The siege of 1945 left the tower in ruins once again, and its reconstruction, led by László Gerő, only started in 1951, after the completion of archaeological research on the site. When the clinker covering was removed, the tower’s newly-revealed core held a sensational surprise, as remnants of a vertical medieval structure were discovered inside. The conic reinforcement was probably inspired by the realisation that the lowest, and therefore most vulnerable, section of the enclosure protecting the castle was the southern curtain on the Gellért Hill side. No wonder that the castle was taken by attacks mounted from that direction every time.

During the reconstruction of historical monuments in the 1950s an approach very clear and honest in its principles was applied. The addition to the ashlar- covered wall section is separated from the rest by a course of bricks and flutes. The restoration of the tower-head was modelled on the tower of Vajdahunyad Castle.

Inside the tower there is a spiral staircase leading to the crenulated balcony covered with shingles. It was here that Zoltán Várkonyi shot the siege-episodes of his film based on Mór Jókai’s novel (The Baron’i Som: A Romance o|) the Hungarian Revolution of 1848) in the 1960s.

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