Budapest: Exploring Castle Hill

Byglenn

Continuing on from yesterday’s post.  The Buda Castle grounds are very extensive and offer some spectacular vantage points for great photos.  The original castle was built around 1000 AD and barely withstood the Mongol invasion a couple of hundred years later.  Along came the Renaissance and the enlightened King of the time, Matthias Corvinus, built a Renaissance style palace along with substantial art on the site of the castle.  Unfortunately, during the Turkish occupation of Hungary (1541-1686), the palace was not occupied and used as an ammunition dump.  This blew up and destroyed the original castle.  The castle was rebuilt by Maria Teresa in the 18th Century and again after WW2.  You can see the various layers of the original structures if you look closely.

a statue of a man on a horse a stone walkway with a stone wall and a building

See the buttress in the center of the photo?  You can go out on that and take spectacular photos up and down the Danube.

a bridge over a river a city next to a river

There is also a tower at the far end and if you go down, the entrance to the museum.

a stone tower with a steeple a stone wall with trees and buildings in the background a group of people walking in front of a building a stone building with a door and a stone wall with vines growing on it

After you finish with Buda Castle, you can explore the rest of the Castle Hill which contains some Government buildings being renovated to be the Prime Minister’s offices and a quaint little town where we had the best gelato of our trip, sorry didn’t get the name.

a building with a crane in the background a street with cars parked on it

a street with poles and buildings a statue in front of a building

Here is a map that give you an idea of the layout of Castle Hill.

a map of a city

Then you reach the Matthias Cathedral (remember him?) which is really spectacular and was renovated in the early 20th Century.

a white building with a tall tower a large building with a tall spire

We were lucky and arrived when they had a booksellers event along with live music playing.

a group of people outside a group of people sitting on chairs and a stage with a man playing a guitar

In back of the cathedral is the Fishermen’s Bastion.  Constructed over 100 years ago, it is so named because that part of the wall was defended by fishermen during the Mongol invasion.  It is really beautiful both from the cathedral side and from the bottom of the hill.  This is a good place to walk down if you decide you want to go back to town.

a group of people walking in a courtyard a statue of a man on a horse

a stone statues of men in a row a large white castle with a pointed roof

There was even a little renaissance festival going on.  They certainly fit in with the surroundings!

people sitting at a table under a tent a group of people under a tent

That wraps up Castle Hill which should be considered a “must see” to anyone visiting Budapest.  I’ll leave you with an old picture of what Castle Hill looked like a few hundreds years ago.

a drawing of a town on a wall

 

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