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1410s
King Sigismund built probably the largest Gothic palace of its age
The first royal residence on Castle Hill was built by King Béla IV between 1247 and 1265. King Sigismund then chose Buda Castle as his main residence. Building began in the 1410s and was largely finished in the 1420s, and the palace became probably the largest Gothic palace of the late Middle Ages. Its great hall was 70 metres long.
1476
Under King Matthias it was the first Renaissance court north of the Alps
After King Matthias married Beatrice of Naples in 1476, Italian humanists, artists and craftsmen came to Buda, and the Hungarian capital became the first centre of the Renaissance north of the Alps. The palace had two rooms with golden ceilings, one of them the Bibliotheca Corviniana, and a passage painted with the twelve signs of the Zodiac.
Ottoman years
The Ottomans carried off the bronze statues and let the palace decay
In 1526 the Ottomans occupied Buda. Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent carried away the bronze statues, including those of Pallas Athene and Hercules, and many volumes of the Bibliotheca Corviniana. Turkish travel writers praised the palace, but the new government let it decay. A favourite nickname for it was the Palace of the Golden Apples.
1749
Maria Theresa's palace was begun on her birthday in 1749
The foundation stone of the new Baroque palace was laid on 13 May 1749, the birthday of Queen Maria Theresa. In the Second World War the palace was severely damaged in the Siege of Budapest, and it was rebuilt in a simplified Baroque style. It now houses the Hungarian National Gallery, the Budapest Historical Museum and the National Széchényi Library.
1686
One cannon shot blew up the gunpowder store in 1686
The medieval palace was destroyed in the great siege of 1686, when Buda was captured by the Holy League. The Ottomans used Stephen's Tower as a gunpowder store, and it exploded when hit by a single cannon. According to contemporary sources, the explosion killed as many as 1,500 Turkish soldiers. In 1715 King Charles III ordered the ruins demolished.
Day 1, afternoon
It comes after Fisherman's Bastion. Then Gellért Hill.
More stories from this trip idea
The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Buda Castle, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.