ROYAL PALACE (BUDAVÁRI PALOTA)

The castle houses two major museums: the National Gallery and the Budapest History Museum (treated individually in this guide). Until the 13th century, the hill of Buda was not inhabited. The invasions of 1241-1242 changed all that. After a surprise attack by Mongolian hordes, the construction of a castle was undertaken between 1247 and 1265 by King Béla IV in order to regroup, under the shelter of its walls, what remained of the population. Nothing remains today of this Gothic building, which was redesigned several times under Sigismund of Luxembourg and Mátyás Hunyadi, and then destroyed in the fight against the Turks in 1686. At the beginning of the 18th century, a small palace was rebuilt in the Baroque style of the time, which was enlarged at the end of the century according to the plans of Miklós Ybl and Alajos Hauszmann. During the winter of 1944-1945, the castle became the last refuge for German troops and a target for Soviet guns. A fire destroyed almost the entire interior of the castle. When the decision was made to rebuild the castle, it was not based on the original plans, nor on the eclectic style that made the castle one of the architectural treasures of Budapest. A reconstruction of the castle in its pre-World War II form has been underway since December 2022 and is managed by the public company Várkapitányság. Note that some of the original buildings around the castle have already been rebuilt, such as the Royal Captaincy.