Royal Palace
Kiraly Palota

The Royal Palace sits on top of Castle Hill overlooking the Danube on the Buda side of Budapest.
Inside is the Budapest History Museum.

The entire Castle Hills area part of the UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site, which includes the panorama over both sides of the Danube from Margaret Island to Gellert Hill.

The Royal Palace, which dominates the southern skyline of the Castle Distric,shares a similar history to that of the Mattyas Church, namely one of upheaval and reconsruction.
The construction of the Royal Palace was begun in the middle of the thirteenth century, and was continued in the fourteenth century by King Louis the Great who had a keep built here.

The building of the outer walls and of the western fortifications was not finished until the end of the century. In the fifteenth century Sigismund of Luxembourg continued the construction and added a chapel and a palace. Construction - work reached its peak with King Matthias, who had the - southeastern fortifications built, as well as a Renaissance royal palace. In the late fifteenth century the King of Hungary's palace was one of the most splendid royal seats in Europe. His famous library, the Bibliotheca Corviniana, according to his contemporaries, equaled the Medici Library in Florence.

Interior of the palace
The main façade overlooking the Danube is 304 meters long, with columns arranged symmetrically, in Baroque style on both sides of the dome. In front of the central part of the building there is a statue of Prince Eugene of Savoy who was one of the leaders of the armies that liberated Buda Castle in 1686. The statue at the gate of the palace garden represents the Turul, the mythic bird of the ancient Magyars. The neo-Baroque groups of buildings towards the south and north are simpler in style. The fortifications of the palace date from the Middle Ages. To the south, facing Gellért Hill, the large Round Bastion, 40 meters in diameter, and the Gate Tower with its tent roof, dominate the scene. In front of the Round Bastion on the slope of the hill a group of excavated Turkish tombstones presents an interesting sight. Passing through the Baroque gate cut in the outer wall we reach the walls and passages of the fortifications. 

source: www.virtualtourist.com and http://www.fsz.bme.hu/

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