Hidden Treasure in the Buda Castle

Visiting the Holy Trinity Square in Buda Castle, perhaps no one thinks that a jewel is hidden in the most modern palace of the square. Next to Matthias Church you can see Hilton Hotel (built in 1979 based on the projects of János Sedlmayer) and behind the walls there are the ruins of a monastery built in the 13^th century and of a Jesuit school. In today’s post I am going to tell you about the history of the monastery and how it was integrated into the hotel.

Buda Castle and its first medieval towers were built in 1247 following the Tartar occupation (1241-42). In this era also many Dominican monks settled in Buda and then the king, Béla IV. (1235-1270) gave them the permission to build a monastery. The monastery later got the name St. Nicholas Monastery and it was consecrated in 1254. During archaeological researches, the scientists found the ruins of a church under the ruins of the monastery, so probably already before the 13^th century there was a village with a church on the hill.

Also a college worked in the 14^th century in the monastery and the different wings of the building and the cloister were rebuilt and enlarged in this era. In the monastery’s cellar the archaeologists found the ruins of an oven (hipocaustum) with which the floor could be heated. In 1396 the French knights who fought against the Ottomans in the Hungarian army, hung their coat of arms on the wall of the monastery’s church. These coats of arms were on the wall until the end of the 15^th century, but then they disappeared and even during archaeological research none of them was found.

During the reign of Matthias I. (1458-1490) a tower (St. Nicholas Tower) and a fountain were built. The fountain has been renovated and is now decorated with the coats of arms of King Matthias, János Szapolyai and an unknown person. Matthias donated a lot of money to the college (studium generale) and wanted to develop it to university. The 15^th century is the golden age of both the monastery and the college where many foreign professors taught at this time.

Due to the war against the Ottomans and the conquest of the castle, there were no any other renovations, moreover, in 1530 during the siege of the castle the walls of the monastery were damaged. The church was probably used as a great mosque at this time. The Ottomans later used the stones of the monastery to force the castle wall, thus for the 18^th century only the ruins of the building remained. The cellar under the monastery was filled up with soil. At the end of the century a Jesuit school and a Catholic high school were built where the monastery once stood, but the nave of the church still existed (its sanctuary was demolished to force the castle wall).

During the construction of the Fishermen’s Bastion (1902) the ruins of the courtyard and the church of the ancient monastery were found. Between 1924 and 1926 St. Nicholas Tower was partially rebuilt and later the hotel was built next to this tower where once there was the monastery church. The original name of the hotel would have been Hotel Mathias Rex, but the Hungarian government bought the Hilton name license.

Inside the hotel you can now visit the Dominican courtyard that once was the nave of the church, with the statues of the two Hungarian monks Julianus and Gerhardus. The statues were established where in the Middle-Ages there was the church sanctuary.

Lately, also a second entrance has been opened for groups arriving by bus at the hotel: the architects have enlarged the natural cave under Hilton Hotel, the corridor is decorated with medieval stone crests and with different memories of the golden ages of the monastery. Tourists can go up with an elevator in the hotel that departs from the cave.