Buda castle, Fresh palace, Gothic sculptures found
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In Buda, the fortress city built after the Tartar Invasion, there was a royal residence already in the 13th century, but we do not know about a separate palace. Such a city palace was first built by Prince Stephen at the southern side of the mountain. The fortified residence, which consisted of a square old tower (Stephen tower) and palace wings built around the square yard, was enlarged by Louis I from the end of the 1370s. In the north the yard attached to the Stephen castle was separated from the continuation of Castle Hill by a dry moat. At the eastern wing of the yard there was a short palace wing and a two-storey palace chapel built around 1382. At the western wing a large palace was built with a facade with arcades, and it was decorated with moulded bricks. The Queen's residence might have been here. The fortifications which closed the yard were the gate tower of the dry moat, the north-eastern corner tower, the north-western Mangled tower and the walls that ran to the Danube. These were built after Louis I's death. Sigismund started the enlargement of the palace from the 1410s on. First he attached a yard - bordered by another dry moat - to the building complex in the north. The L-shaped Sigismund palace was built to this. In the northern wing of this there was a two-storey hall. In the southern part, around the Stephen tower he had another new palace wing built, which was attached to the Queen's residence with a two-storey bridge. A strong double wall was built around the palace. The Buda place, which was finished in the 1420s, was one of the biggest royal residences in Europe.
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Fresh palace
A house in Buda, which was first mentioned in 1437, then in 1439 as "Friyczpzlotahaya", in the foreground of the royal palace, near the St Sigismund provostship. In 1514 it was certainly a royal house. It may be identical with the large building represented in the Schledel engraving in front of the castle. In the first half of the 16th century it was included in the newly built closing wall of the palace. The 1974 Gothic sculpture finding was found in the cellars of the house opposite, so we can presume the stone cutting workshop which made the sculptures was situated in the Fresh palace.
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Gothic sculptures found in Buda
László Zolnay found some important sculptures in 1974, during the opening of a medieval house in today's territory of the palace. Part of these sculptures are small, neatly carved apostle figures, others are larger figures of men and women wearing secular clothes, a page and a bishop. Among others two figural consols, a Czech royal helmet decoration and a fragment of a Hungarian coat-of-arm were also found. According to Ernő Marosi, they were made in the third decade of the 15th century. It is unknown why and when they were buried. On the basis of the accompanying findings, it seems certain that all of them were "thrown out" from the same stone-cutting workshop. They may never have been erected. Not only their topic and style are different, but also their measurements and way of cutting differs, too. So they were scarcely planned into the same structure. the figures of saints would rather fit into the inside, for example the altar, while the men, women and knights might have been made as decorations of the building.
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