(Local Name: Királyi palota) The first royal palace (Királyi palota) was built under Charles I after he and his court moved to Visegrád in 1316. More than one hundred years later King Matthias had the residence extended and rebuilt for himself and his Aragonese wife Beatrix and summoned Italian, or artists trained in Italy, to Visegrád, which thereby became an artistic and cultural center of the Early Renaissance in Hungary. The praise heaped upon it by contemporaries gives an indication of the former splendor of the palace; the Italian humanist Antonio Bonfini (1427-1503): "The magnificent dining rooms have splendid coffered ceilings. There are also halls with gilded columns and homely rooms, exquisite marble
fountains, impressive window grilles, delightful ballrooms, fortified treasure rooms and splendid courtyards with tall marble fountains. There is no lack of gardens, below open colonnades the scent of stocks waft, all kinds of boxwood trees line beautiful promenades. Among the wide clearings in the gardens there would be enough space for council chambers. No less attractive to the visitor are the shimmering green canals, the fish ponds, the show jumping ground and the extensive horse racing track along the banks of the Danube" (quoted from: Janus Pannonius, Humanists in Hungary). During the Turkish wars the complex fell into decay and later into oblivion; what was not buried by the sliding masses of earth was used as a quarry.
The discovery of the legendary palace is credited to János Schulek, son of the famous architect Frigyes Schulek, who led the excavations of the site in 1934.
Tour
The site of the ruins is situated in Fo utca (entrance at house no. 27) which runs parallel to the banks of the Danube. The northern part of the palace, the king's residence, has long been opened up whereas the main part of the Beatrix palace is still below ground.
Access to the site is by the lowest of the four terraces that rise up the slope, which was originally at ground level. This was the reception surrounded by colonnades with steps at the rear leading up to the second terrace. A narrow corridor with narrow niches for servants to sit in let into the wall leads to the courtyard, center of the former residential palace of the king. A cloister-like arcaded walk leads around the courtyard.
Its east wing has been preserved with magnificent Late Gothic fan vaulting, evidence of a highly developed medieval vaulting technique. In the middle of the courtyard was the Hercules fountain. A marble slab of the fountain basin remains in front of the town while the other parts are kept in the Solomon tower. The Renaissance balustrade above the courtyard belongs to a loggia on the third terrace with majolica patterned floors. Other rooms from the royal palace are in rows behind the loggia. Between this and the Beatrix palace was the 14th C castle chapel. King Matthias had a golden wooden ceiling installed in the relatively large chapel and a marble altar with a Madonna relief which can be seen in the museum of the Solomon tower. One terrace higher in the northernmost part of the palace site are the remains of a bath with a steam room and a coldwater basin and to the south the former private royal garden with a copy of the red marble lion fountain which illustrates the transition from Late Gothic to Renaissance.
Hobbies & Activities category: Castle, chateau, palace
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