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, Buda Hill was uninhabited. The invasions of 1241-1242 changed all that. After a surprise attack by Mongol hordes, King Béla IV built a fortress between 1247 and 1265, sheltering the remaining population within its walls. Today, nothing remains of this Gothic edifice, which was remodeled several times under Sigismund of Luxembourg and Mátyás Hunyadi, then destroyed in the battle against the Turks in 1686. In the early ^18th century, a small palace was rebuilt in the Baroque style of the time, and enlarged at the end of the century to designs by 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 taken to rebuild the castle, it was not the original plans that served as inspiration, nor the eclectic style that had made the castle one of Budapest's architectural treasures. An identical reconstruction of the castle in its pre-World War II form has been underway since December 2022, managed by the state-owned company Le Várkapitányság. Some of the original buildings around the castle have already been rebuilt, such as the Royal Captaincy.