SEARCH HOTELS


Arrival
Departure
In collaboration with Booking.com

Share

Useful Info:

some practical information for visiting Budapest

Read More »

News

Customer Care

Customer Care

English Español Italiano Français Română


Varpalota -The Royal Palace

 

In the area south of Varhegy lies the royal palace, Varpalota.

The palace history dates back to the XIV century, and in 1355, just when the construction was about to be completed, the royal court moved here. The first golden period for the palace was under King Sigismund, between 1387 and 1437. The king did everything he could to embellish the building, ordering the construction of a double belt wall all around it to protect it from fire, and the Rondello to provide the palace with a stronger defence in the south; and also, he ordered the construction of the magnificent Friss Palace, a splendid example of gothic art.

King Matthias Corvino succeeded Sigismund, and gathered at his court philosophers, artists, masters of art, who transformed the Palace into the magic place which it is still today. The library, with its 2500 volumes, was one of the most important in the world, and in those years, the pomp of the court competed with the famous courts of the Sforza in Milan and the Montefeltro in Urbino.

The inside of the palace was first made in gothic, then in Renaissance  style. A big renaissance wing was created in the north-east part, which was unfortunately destroyed during the Turkish occupation and the siege of 1686. 
The palace underwent various reconstructions, the most important of which was made by Jean-Nicolas Jadot, Hillenbrandt and Oracsek. After these interventions the palace was finally used by Maria Theresa in 1770 as residence during her frequent journeys to Budapest.
In 1849, another wing of the palace was destroyed by a fire during the occupation by the independent part of the Hungarian army. The last destruction occurred during the Second World War, when a huge part of the roof collapsed.

The reconstruction followed soon after, but the various rooms were rebuilt following more modern criteria. The ancient medieval parts, along with some sculptures of the Angiò age and other rests of the building were brought back to life, and some of them are now exhibited in the Fortress Museum or Varmuzeum, a group of cultural institutes like the Budapesti Torteneti Muzeum (hall E), the city museum of history, which hosts the exhibition “two millenniums for Budapest”, the art collection from the middle Age to contemporary times inside the Hungarian National Gallery (hall B,,C,D), the Museum of contemporary Hungarian history (hall A) and the Szechenyi National library (hall F).

 

Várpalota