Royal Palace

The enormous palace complex has been razed and rebuilt at least a half-dozen times over the past seven centuries. Béla IV established a royal residence here in the mid-13th century and subsequent kings added on to it. The palace was levelled in the battle to rout the Turks in 1686; the Habsburgs rebuilt it, but spent very little time here. Today the Royal Palace contains two important museums as well as the National Széchenyi Library, which contains codices and manuscripts, a large collection of foreign newspapers and a copy of every­thing published in Hungary or the Hungarian language. It was founded by Count Ferenc Széchenyi (1754–1820), father of István Széchenyi, who endowed it with 15,000 books and 2000 manuscripts.

There are two entrances to the Royal Palace. The first is via the Habsburg Steps, southeast of Szent György tér and through an ornamental gateway dating from 1903. The other way in is via Corvinus Gate, with its big black raven symbolising King Matthias Corvinus, southwest of the square.