Szablyár Péter: Step by step - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2010)

Royal Stairs - stairways in Várkert (Castle Garden)

Designed by Miklós Ybl, the Várkertbazár (Castle Gardens Bazaar) was originally meant to function as the main ornamental stairway leading to the royal palace reconstructed by the end of the 19th century. The stairs were to connect the castle garden with the chic embankment walkway by the Danube (and thus to prevent the erection of high buildings that would spoil the view). However, the stairway was never to fulfil the function originally assigned to it. It was cut off from the river by the busy motor traffic, which is why nothing comparable to the bustling life on the Pest-side embankment was ever to appear here, and the Várkertbazár was soon deserted by the merchants renting shops in it. The archways thus vacated were then occupied by sculptors and painters who arranged their studios here. The ornamental stairs meant to lead up to the hill were never constructed and they did not thus continue inside the garden.

A two-storey building was erected in the place of the pumping station of the Castle waterworks at the north end of the Várkertbazár. It was to this that the roofed Water- carriers' Stairs built in the Middle Ages were joined. At the top of this was the neo- Renaissance Giant Stairway built with its stone balustrade. The latter was connected to the pathway leading to the Palace with a tower converted from what had been the summerhouse here. Visitors, however, preferred the more comfortable funicular, which had been built in the meantime, and thus this approach to the palace fell into disuse.

The Castle Garden was preserved in the shape it had assumed by the end of the 19th century until the siege ending World War II here. It was not damaged beyond repair, but it was seen by the new regime as a symbol of the interwar era and the rule of Miklós Horthy. The pretext for dispensing with it altogether was provided by the large-scale archaeological excavations carried out on the location. The stones used with the "grotta" and the rockery were transported to Margaret Island and the glasshouses were moved to the city of Miskolc. Following directives issued by László Gerő, who supervised the reconstruction work, "mediaeval" gardens were installed in the archaeologically-explored yards between the castle walls according to principles that are regarded as controversial to this day.

Severely damaged in World War 11, the Várkertbazár was restored to its earlier condition in 1958, and the famous and infamous recreational facility called Buda Youth Park was opened on the premises in 1961. The then-prevailing cultural policies of the ruling powers referred to by the phrase "three S's" (suppressed, suffered, supported, which is a translation of the original, similarly alliterative Hungarian) created a no man’s land here, where the surreptitious western import of "beat music” could mingle with its domestic equivalent. The effects of such capitalist infiltration were meant to be mitigated by the uncompromising implementation of

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