Buda Castle quarter, miscellaneous photos - Budapest, Hungary

Location:

GPS coordinates: Latitude 47°30'9", Longitude 19°1'54" (N47 30.15 - E19 1.9) Map

Statue of Blessed Pope Innocent XI

Pope Innocent XI (born as Benedetto Odescalchi, 1611-1689) is also known as the "Saviour of Hungary", because he was one of the initiators of the christian Holy League, which helped expulsing the Turks from Hungary after the almost 150 years of occupation. The last pasha of Buda Abdurrahman Abdi "the Albanian" (1616-1686) was killed here on the site of the current statue of the Pope in 1686, during the recapturing of the Buda Castle in 1686.

High relief of Matthias Corvinus (king of Hungary) on the tower of the former Saint Nicholas Church

The statue of King Matthias I of Hungary (or Matthias Corvinus, born as "Mátyás Hunyadi", 1443-1490) on the survived tower of the former St. Nicholas Church is the replica of a relief that is in Bautzen, Germany. The original statue was created in 1486, while the replica was erected by the town council of Budapest in 1930. In the second half of the 15th century during the reign of King Matthias Corvinus Bautzen town was Hungarian royal estate and part of the Kingdom of Hungary (more precisely between 1469-1490). This relief is considered to be the most realistic depiction of King Matthias Corvinus.

National Dance Theatre of Buda (in Hungarian "Budai Várszínház" or "Nemzeti Táncszínház")

The building of the Court Theatre of Buda or later National Dance Theatre of Buda (in Hungarian "Budai Várszínház" or "Nemzeti Táncszínház") was built around 1736, initially it was a Franciscan and then Carmelite church and monastery. After Joseph II King and Hungary dissolved the monasteries in 1784 the building became a casino for a few years. Then in 1787 it was converted to the first stone theater of the capital city, by the plans of the Hungarian author and inventor Farkas Kempelen (in German Wolfgang von Kempelen, 1734-1804). In 1800 the world-famous German composer Ludwig van Beethoven gave a concert within its walls. The building was highly damaged in the World War II and the reconstruction works were completed only in 1978, when it was opened as a theater agan (and under the name "Várszínház" or "Court Theatre" again). Since 2001 it is the home of the dance art in Hungary (namely the "Nemzeti Táncszínház" or "National Dance Theatre").

In summer of 2014 it was a bolt from the blue for the professional dance community that Viktor Orbán prime minister of Hungary stated that he wants to move his office to here in the former Carmelite monastery by 15 March 2016 at the latest. So till then the theatre has to leave the building and they will move supposedly to the Millenáris Cultural Center, close to the Széll Kálmán Square.

However, several problems encountered concerning the rehousing of the Prime Ministry. The main argument is that it will be too expensive, because the building in the current form was built specifically for theatrical purposes and the whole interior need to be rebuilt. Also, many people think that the project is completely unnecessary and in the current situation of the country it is just waste of money. By the way, in the last couple of centuries from the history of Hungary Buda was no longer the political center (and especially the legislative center) of the country, but rather Pest, so the Buda Castle was also rather used for representational purposes (and theoretically this is the situation even today). Although it is also mostly for representational purposes, the Sándor Palace (or Alexander Palace) is probably a somewhat exception, because with some minor interruptions that was the Prime Minister's residence between 1867-1945, and since 2003 it is the residence of the President of Hungary.

It is interesting from the ethical point of view why the Orbán Government bumps more cultural institutions from historical buildings by using political powers to acquire the buildings for their own purposes. Such institutions are for example the Ethnographic Museum ("Néprajzi Múzeum") on the Kossuth Lajos Square in the former Palace of Justice, or the Hungarian National Gallery ("Nemzeti Galéria") and the National Széchenyi Library ("Országos Széchényi Könyvtár") in the Royal Palace of Buda Castle (it is planned to move the latter ones from the Buda Castle at the same time when ther will be major renovations here). The completely free handover of the beautiful Vigadó Concert Hall to the Hungarian Academy of Arts (in Hungarian "Magyar Művészeti Akadémia" or MMA) was also happened based on a similar scenario.