Budapest Castle
The Budapest Castle is the biggest building in Hungary, and the most
known building in Budapest. The castle takes the whole space on the
Southern part of the castle hill.
The history of the castle dates back to the 13th century, when King
Bela IV. had the glorious to own a castle. The castle has a lenght of
400 metres and a width of 200 metres. The building was destroyed during
the second world war. The rebuilding of some parts of the castle still
continues until today.
The first time the castle was mentioned in a document was in 1255. It
was 14 years after Mongolians destroyed Budapest and the area around.
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In the 16th century the Turkish invaders needed a couple of years to
take the castle and consequently the rest of the city. It was in 1541
when the soldiers in the castle had to surrender. 145 years of Turkish
occupation and the decline of the castle followed.
In 1686 the castle was besieged again. This time by a Christian army
from Austria under the lead of Duke Charles V. Two months the
Christians tried to take the castle which was defended by Turkish
soldiers. The 2nd of September 1868 about 5:00pm was the time when the
Christian army started the successful attack to take the castle. The
building was in Christian hands again, and immediately rebuild and
renovated. The fear of a Turkish counterstroke was big.
The Empress Maria Theresia of Austria gave the order to make a nice
cosy homely castle out of the old fortress. After 56 years of work the
"homely castle" was finnished in 1770. Maria Theresia had 10 years time
to use and enjoy her castle in Budapest before she died.
In the "Battle of Budapest" during the second world war in 1944/1945,
the castle was the headquater of the German army. In heavy combats
almost the whole castle was destroyed. A lot of precious antique items
and paintings were burned. The damages of those combats are still not
removed yet in some parts of the castle.
