User:Hergeberge08/National Hauszmann Project (Budapest)

The National Hauszmann Project (Hungarian: Nemzeti Hauszmann Program, abbreviated in both languages as NHP) is a complex long-term urban reconstruction and development project aiming to redesign large parts of Budapest's UNESCO-listed Castle District. Initiated by the third Orbán cabinet in 2019, the project aims to rebuild several historical buildings that were damaged or destroyed during the WW2 Siege of Budapest or demolished or modified during the reconstruction of the area under Communist rule. The project is named after Alajos Hauszmann, the architect leading the large-scale extension of the then Baroque Buda Royal Palace in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The NHP is categorised as a priority government investment (Hungarian: kiemelt kormányzati beruházás), is fully financed by the government, and is coordinated by Várkapitanyság Zrt., a government-created private limited liability company. So far, two phases of the NHP have been announced, Phase I. (2019-21) and Phase II. (2021-24), both aiming to "return Buda Castle into the daily life of the people".

Since its reconstruction following near-complete devastation during the Second World War, Buda Castle has been the home of several cultural institutions, including the Hungarian National Gallery and the National Széchenyi Library, which are projected to be moved to new, purpose built locations. The NHP aims to rebuild the Castle District to its prewar form, including the Royal Palace, the Hungarian National Archives, the Royal Gardens, and a number of former ministry buildings and palaces, as well as to add modern amenities, including garages, escalators, and elevators. The project is subject to heavy criticisms from the side of architects, politicians, intellectuals, and environmentalists and is believed by some to be less of a historical reconstruction but rather a cover to transform the Castle District into a government district overwhelming the area.

Before WW2
Following the 1867 Austro-Hungarian Compromise, Budapest was elevated to the rank of the capital of the Transleithanian half of the Dual Monarchy. As a result, the city experienced rapid economic, urban, and cultural development. Ambitious urban planning projects were carried out to represent the growing wealth and higher status of the Hungarian capital, with special attention being paid to the redesigning of Buda Castle. In order to represent its independence from and equality to Vienna, the newly autonomous Hungarian government intended to construct a royal residence to match any contemporary European royal residence in style, grandeur, and the modernity of its amenities (especially their old rival, Vienna's Hofburg palace). Simultaneously, the new royal residence was also to pay homage to the millennial history of Hungary's nationhood and to serve as a symbolic centre of the Hungarian kingdom. The reconstruction project spanned over almost forty years, between 1875 and 1912, and resulted in significant changes in the urban landscape of the capital. The architects Miklós Ybl, and his successor Alajos Hauszmann, created a grand Neo-Baroque domed palace surrounded by terraced gardens, a new riding hall, new palaces for members of the aristocracy, and ministries dotting the entirety of the adjacent Castle District. This so-called 'Hauszmannian' state lasted for about three decades. After the 1918 revolution and the removal of the Habsburg dynasty, the Royal Palace became the seat of the new Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary, Miklós Horthy who took up residence in the palace's western wing with his family between the years of 1920 and 1944. Horthy was Hungary's first ruler to reside in the Palace on a permanent basis since the Ottoman conquest of Buda in 1541.

Beside the Royal Palace, the rest of the Castle Hill, the so-called Polgárváros (Hungarian for "burghers' town", i.e. the Castle District's historic residential areas occupying the northern section of the Castle Hill) had also experienced major additions during this era. The construction of numerous government and administrative buildings in direct vicinity to the new royal residence was part of an effort to create a government district for the Hungarian capital, a Whitehall-style concentration of such buildings that Budapest was lacking. Accordingly, a number of ministries (ministry of finance, ministry of defence) and administrative units (Hungarian State Archives, defence headquarters) were moved to large-scale purpose-built palaces in the district (the transformation of the Sándor Palace to house the Prime Minister's Office was disrupted by the outbreak of the First World War). The scale and style of these new buildings were subject to heavy contemporary and post-war criticism deeming the 4 to 5 story high, flamboyantly adorned historicising edifices alien to the small town scale and quaint Baroque-Rococo architecture of the district. This turn-of-the century building boom threatened to do away with the district's architectural fabric, as it has happened with Pest's historic old town that had to give way to similar grand edifices a few decades before. A regulation restricting the hight of newly erected buildings in the Castle District at 21 metres was only enacted in 1912.

Nevertheless, the Palace and the Castle District were successfully transformed into a seat of power and witnessed the coronation ceremony of the country's last king, Charles IV., in 1916. Following the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, the Castle District continued to function as the country's seat of power. With Hungary's independence, even a new ministry, the ministry of foreign affairs (Austria and Hungary shared a common foreign ministry before 1918, with its seat in Vienna) was moved into the Palace of the Red Cross.

WW2 and post-war reconstruction
On 16 October 1944 a Nazi German commando unit occupied the Royal Palace and forced the Regent to abdicate. Buda Castle was the last major stronghold of Budapest held by Axis forces during the Soviet Siege of Budapest between 29 December 1944 and 13 February 1945. As the location of government and administrative buildings, the Castle Hill as a whole was considered a primary strategic target by the Soviets. As a result of the siege, the entire palace complex and the surrounding Castle District were reduced into ruins, the palace's furniture vanished, roofs and vaults collapsed and the southern and western wings were burned out; similarly, most adjacent government buildings were severely damaged. The destruction was comparable to that of the 1686 Siege of Buda that has largely obliterated the mediaeval castle.

In 1948, under the leadership of the archeologist László Gerevich, archaeological research on the medieval history of the palace began. As a result, the ruins of the medieval palace, which had been buried for more than two hundred years, were uncovered again. The unfolding restoration of the Castle Hill, led by the architect László Gerő was putting a heightened emphasis on conserving, displaying and reconstructing mediaeval remains in opposition to the the late 19th century Hauszmannian layer, which was viewed as ideologically undesirable at the time. In addition to the conservation and archeological works, planning for the palace's future function started to spark debates within the leadership on Hungary's Communist Party. According to early proposals pushed by Communist leader Mátyás Rákosi, the former Royal Palace would have been replaced by a Kremlin-like closed state administration centre, while a semi-open zone intended for other state institutions and embassies would have been built on the site of the Polgárváros.

After Rákosi's removal and the political changes following the 1956 Uprising, the Kádár government wowed to transform the Castle into a "castle of culture" by only accommodating cultural institutions and public collections in the increasingly reconstructed palace. Thus, removing the Castle Hill was stripped of all of its former government and administrative functions and was increasingly given over to cultural, residential, and later, touristic purposes. By the late 1970s, a number of museums, including the the Labour Movement Museum, the Hungarian National Gallery, the Budapest History Museum, and by 1985 the National Széchény Library found their new home in the palace. The reconstructions (with the exception of building "A") did not change the Hauszmannian layout of the palace. However, radical changes have taken place inside the building. Instead of restoring or replacing the damaged or destroyed interiors, the interiors were completely replaced in a modernist style leaving no remains of the Hauszmannian design. Outside the palace, all the 19th and 20th structures of the palace complex, including the ruins of the royal stables, the Royal Riding Hall, the Main Guardhouse, and Archduke Joseph's Palace were demolished by the late 1970s. Similarly, the southern access way connecting Palota út with the Hunyadi Court via ramps and the Horseherd Court were demolished and made unaccessible to the public. The removal of these structures gave way to display the Castle's reconstructed mediaeval fortifications or were left barren as archeological fields or parking lots.

As for the Polgárváros, during the slow and protracted restoration of the Buda Castle, the large-scale government buildings from the era of the Dualism were largely demolished, or were dismantled and simplified to fit them into the restored, medieval-baroque ensemble of the Castle District. Completely damaged buildings or structures deemed to be unworthy to reconstruct were replaced by smaller-scale modernist buildings fitting into their surroundings.

Royal Riding Hall
(Hungarian: királyi lovarda, German: königliche Reithalle). Built: 1899, demolished: 1954, reconstructed: 2020

The Neo-Baroque and Art Nouveau building of the Royal Riding Hall was erected as part of the large-scale late 19th century transformation of the Royal Palace and its surroundings. The new riding hall building, designed by Alajos Hauszmann, was completed in 1899 and featured a large winter riding hall, ceremonial foyers, stained glass works by Miksa Róth, an orchestra pit, as well as a royal salon and a royal lodge serving the Emperor-King Francis Joseph I of Austria, an avid horseman himself. Designed as a private riding hall for the imperial family, the building was not accessible to the general public and thus lacked viewing galleries. After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the riding hall remained in private use, this time of the Regent Miklós Horthy. The building has suffered substantial damage during the Siege of Budapest, its ruins remained neglected until its final demolition in 1954. Its site showcased remains of the Castle's mediaeval fortifications. The replica of the historic Riding Hall has been completed in 2020 based on Hauszmann's surviving plans by using historically accurate building materials as well as a reinforced concrete skeleton. Apart from a few smaller scale buildings in the Budapest Zoo, the Riding Hall is the country's first building to be reconstructed as an exact replica after its complete destruction. As such, it has been subject to debates and controversy. Contrary to its predecessor, the new Riding Hall does not serve any equestrian functions but is used as a multipurpose event venue. Also, the location of the replica of the new Riding Hall differs by a few degrees from its original state caused by an underground garage that had been previously constructed under a part of the area. Due to these preexisting statical reasons it was necessary to adapt the angle of the newly constructed structure atop. However, these few degrees break the strict logic of Hauszmann's spatial organisation and prevent a larger scale reconstruction of the pre-war access roads. Originally, a ramp led up from the town on Palota út alongside the riding hall to the upper terrace of the Horseherd Court, however, the modified angle of the new Riding Hall cuts this original access road.

Main Guardhouse
(Hungarian: Főőrség, German: Hauptwache) Built: 1903, demolished: 1971, reconstructed: 2020

Completed in 1903, the original building of the Royal Hungarian Guards (Hungarian: Magyar Királyi Darabont Testőrség (1904-1918), Magyar Királyi Testőrség (1918-1944), German: königlich-ungarische Leibgarde) was designed by Alajos Hauszmann. It sat atop mediaeval fortification walls bridging the elevation between the different terraces of the Castle complex and featured a one-story façade facing the upper Hunyadi Court but a four-story façade on the side of the lower Horseherd Court. In the 1930s, the building served as the focal point of the daily change of the guards ceremony. The edifice has survived the devastations of the Second World War with minor damages and remained in service as a planning office of the Buda Castle reconstruction project until its abrupt and undocumented demolition in 1971. After its demolition, a section of the castle's mediaeval fortifications was rebuilt on the site.

The replica of the historic Guardhouse was rebuilt using a reinforced concrete skeleton between 2018-2020. Today, the colonnaded ground floor houses a café, while the first floor is home to a small exhibition on the history of the Royal Guards. As a modern addition, the lower base of the western façade opening to the Horseherd Court (Hungarian: Csikós udvar) features a large bronze gate, 7 meters wide and 3.2 meters high, allowing access to an underground archeological space. The gate, the work of the sculptor Ferenc Farkas, is decorated with 27 reliefs in three rows depicting events related to the history of the Buda Castle. While the exterior of the building, including building materials and ornaments is an exact replica of the original, the interior is completely modern.

Stöckl Staircase
(Hungarian: Stöckl-lépcső, German: Stöcklstiege) Built: 1896, demolished: 1971, reconstructed: 2020

Adjacent to the Main Guardhouse, the Neorenaissance Stöckl Staircase is a pedestrian structure connecting two levels of the Palace complex. Designed by Alajos Hauszmann in 1896, the staircase offers access from the lower Horseherd Court (Hungarian: Csikós udvar) to the upper Hunyadi Court (Hungarian: Hunyadi udvar) as well as into the Main Guardhouse itself. Its name commemorates the so-called 'Stöcklgebäude ' building that stood at its site before the 19th century redevelopment of the area. Similarly to the Guardhouse, the staircase survived WW2 with minor damages but was demolished in the early 1970s. It was rebuilt as part of the NHP in 2020.

Horseherd Court
(Hungarian: Csikós udvar)

The public space situated one level below the Palace and the Hunyadi Court bordered by the Palace's Krisztinaváros (western) wing from the south, the Stöckl Staircase, the Main Guardhouse and the Hauszmann Ramp from the east, the Royal Riding Hall from the north and the Hauszmannian castle wall from the west. Taking its name after a large equestrian statue, the Horse Tamer (Hungarian: Lófékező) by the sculptor György Vastagh Jr. inaugurated in 1901, the court formed part of a new access private access way created to connect the Royal Palace and its new service and equestrian buildings with the town below.

The court had practically ceased to exist after the demolition of all surrounding buildings but the palace itself during the post-war reconstructions and was used for decades as storage space for the reconstruction works of the Palace complex. Later, the area was used as the parking lot of the adjacent National Széchenyi Library lacking any touristic significance. In 1982, even the eponymous equestrian statue was moved up to the Hunyadi Court, creating somewhat of a toponymic imbroglio between the two courts for decades.

Turkish Garden
(Hungarian: Török kert) Built: 2020-21

Situated between the Royal Riding Hal and Kakaş Pasha's Tower, the Turkish Garden is a small green space evoking an Orientalising style. The garden was inspired by the Ottoman-era district, the Yeni Mahalle (Turkish for 'new district') that used to stretch between Karakaş Pasha's Tower and the later Royal Gardens. Destroyed during the Austrian Siege of Buda and replaced by the so called 'New World Garden' (Hungarian: Újvilág kert), the area was built up and included into the Palace complex during the 19th century extensions. The newly created green space features mediterranean greenery and a rose garden.

Karakaş Pasha's Tower
(Hungarian: Karakas pasa tornya, Turkish: Karakaş Paşa kulesi, Ottoman Turkish: قله قاراقاش باشا qule-ye Qārāqāş bāşā) Built: around 1620, demolished: 1884, reconstructed: 1959-60, renovated: 2021-22.

The Karakaş Pasha Tower is the modern-day replica of an Ottoman-era defensive structure that stood at the site. The original tower was part of the Turkish-era defensive system of Buda Castle, the then seat of the Buda Pashas governing the Budin Eyalet. Commissioned by Karakaş Mehmet Pasha, Pasha of Budin (1618-21) in 1620, the tower survived the Siege of Buda. Its ruins were demolished in 1884 as part of the Hauszmannian redesign of the Palace complex and were replaced by a ramp linking the new stables with the upper courts of the Castle.

Following the destructions during the Soviet Siege of Budapest, the Socialist-era reconstruction prioritised the excavation and recreation of the Castle's mediaeval layers making way to an idealised recreation of the Karakaş Pasha Tower as a polygonal replica including modern additions, such as a glass-covered upper floor and roof dating back to a 1997. Despite the fact that the tower in its modern form is fairly recent addition, the renovation of the tower was included as part of the NHP. The redesigned tower is set to function as a café and public washroom. The redesigned tower earned heavy criticism for its added modern and orientalising elements, a-historicity, and its costs.

Hauszmann Ramp
(Hungarian: Hauszmann rámpa; originaly 'lovak le- és felvezetésére szolgáló lejtős út ' ['sloping road serving ascending and descending horses'] Built: 1903, demolished around 1977, rebuilt by 2021.

Connecting the Castle's upper level Hunyadi Court with the Horseherd Court, the ramp is a redbrick structure embellished with carved limestone buttresses. At the upper, the turning point features a larges stone obelisk holding a candelabra. Constructed in par with he Main Guardhouse and the Royal Riding hall, the ramps main purpose was to allow equestrian access from the (now demolished) lower stalls and the riding hall to the Palace's upper level. The ramp has survived WW2 and was only demolished as late as 1977. Similarly to the structures of the adjacent Stöckl Staircase and the Main Guardhouse, it was replaced by a section of the Castle's mediaeval fortifications.

The modern structure, rebuilt in 2021, rests on these medieval buttressed walls, its arches house washrooms, commercial areas, and changing rooms. Similarly to its predecessor, it provides pedestrian access between the two terrace levels.

Southern connecting wing (Royal Palace)
(Hungarian: déli összekötőszárny or nyaktag, German: südlicher Verbindingsflügel) Built: 1900-1902, damaged: 1944-45, rebuilt: 1952, reconstructed: 2021-22 The southern connecting wing is located between the southern wing of the Maria Theresa-era baroque palace and the lathe 19th century Ybl-Hauszmann extension stretching west towards the Krisztínaváros. As its name suggests, it connects the older and newer parts of the building, in its current function the Budapest History Museum and the National Széchényi Library. The wing has a two short, three axed Neo-Baroque stone façades facing to the north (the Lions' Court) and the south (Tabán) evoking a triumphal arch on both sides, designed by Alajos Hauszmann. On the ground floor, a carriageway connected the Lions' Court with the Castle's southern terraces. This gate was originally called the Telegraph Gate (Hungarian: Távírda kapu, German: Telegraphentor), taking its name from the palace's telegraph office that used to be located on the ground floor of the wing. On the façade facing the Lions' Court, the gate is flanked by two large bronze statues depicting the allegories of War and Peace, the works of the sculptor Károly Senyei. The wing has two floors, the ceremonial rooms (Saint Stephen's Hall and Neo-Baroque antechamber) were located on the first floor, as everywhere else in the palace, the rooms on the second floor had subordinate functions. Similarly to the rest of the Palace, the southern connecting wing has suffered significant damage during the Siege of Budapest and was burnt out; the entire interior is likely to have gone up in flames at this time. After years of neglect, the wing was reconstructed as part of the Palace's restoration project starting in 1952. The façade facing the Lions' Court changed little, on the Tabán side, however, the Hauszmannian architecture was entirely replaced by a five-window, plastered, so called 'Socialist-Baroque' façade. The wing became part of the Budapest History Museum, opened in 1967, housing the museum's lobby, buffet, and cloakroom on the ground floor, a lounge, offices, and a storage room on the first floor, and a book warehouse on the second floor leaving no trace of the original interior design.

The full-scale reconstruction of the wing's Hauszmannian exterior and interior started in 2020. While all previous NHP projects were dealing with the immediate surroundings of the Palace, the reconstruction of the southern connecting wing (including Saint Stephen's Hall) is the first and hitherto only completed project concerning the Palace itself. As such, it is regarded as a pilot project, which could prove the feasibility of the proposed reconstruction of the entire building. The result has been celebrated as a success across ideological lines: the reconstruction carried out by Várkapitányság is praised to exhibit impressive attention and care to the smallest details and thoughtful overall design.

Saint Stephen's Hall (Royal Palace)
(Hungarian: Szent István-terem, German: Stephanssaal)

Carmelite Monastery (Prime Minister's Office)
(Hungarian: Karmelita-kolostor, German: Karmeliterkloster)

Archduke Joseph's Palace
(Hungarian: József főherceg palotája, German: Palais Erzherzog Josef) Built 1787–89 as Teleki Palace (Hungarian: Teleki-palota), rebuilt in 1902, demolished: 1968, reconstructed: 2022-24. The palace, sometimes abbreviated as JFP, is a former royal residence located on the western side of Szent György tér (Saint George's Square, German: Georgs-Platz). Originally built as a Zopf style palace built in 1789 by the noble Teleki family, the building was bought in 1889 by Archduke Joseph Karl of Austria, commander-in-chief of the Hungarian Armed Forces. In 1902, the archduke rebuilt and expanded the palace, in a historicizing style, based on the designs of Flóris Korb and Kálmán Giergl. Following the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the palace remained in the property of the Archduke's son, Archduke Joseph August of Austria. During the Siege of Budapest, the building was hit by several bombs and got heavily damaged. After the war, the ruined building was used as a dormitory for industrial students and as workers' canteen. After their evacuation in 1953, the ruins stood empty for a long time and were even set on fire in the 1960s for filming purposes. In June 1968, the dilapidated palace was demolished and converted into an archeological field displaying mediaeval remains.

In March 2023, the government announced that the reconstructed building will be used as the seat of the country's Constitutional Court (Hungarian: Alkotmánybíróság)

Royal Defence Headquarters
(Hungarian: magyar királyi Honvéd Főparancsnokság, German: königlich-ungarisches Honvéd Oberkommando)

Royal Ministry of Finance
(Hungarian: magyar királyi Pénzügyminisztérium, German: königlich-ungarisches Finanzministerium)