PHOTOS: Astounding stairway leading to Buda Castle’s Sándor Palace is being rebuilt
According to a statement shared on the official Facebook page of the National Hauszmann Programme, they started to rebuild the so-called Ybl stairway connecting Szent György Square with Palota Street in Buda. The Szent György Square is a central place in the Buda Palace where the Sándor Palace, the official residence of the Hungarian President, is.
Ybl stairway to connect Szent György Square with Buda
The stairway has a number of sections, and the first section will be ready soon, the Nemzeti Hauszmann Programme wrote.
The Ybl stairway starts at the Southern wall of Archduke Joseph’s palace, which is also being rebuilt. We detailed that project with photos HERE. The stairway leads down from there on the Western slopes of the castle hill to Palota Street. It has several turning points and rests. From the Ybl stairway, you may also reach Alagút Street and Krisztina Square.
In creating the stairway’s support structure, they follow the most modern technical requirements, considering the original look with the help of contemporary photos. The appearance, material use, and outer covers resemble the original stairway. Therefore, it will fit with the clinker and Süttő limestone cover of the original Ybl abutment.
Miklós Ybl built the original stairway in the second half of the 19th century. Fights during the siege of Budapest during WWII damaged it. Even though its harms were not serious, the Communists deconstructed it without an explanation.
Budapest suffered damages in 1944-45
The siege of our capital was one of the greatest and bloodiest in WWII. The Soviet troops were fighting on the streets of Budapest between December 1944 and February 1945. Some of the consequences were the destruction of all of our Danube (and Tisza) bridges while more than 2/3rd (!) of the Budapest apartments and houses suffered damage. You may read about the first (and forgotten) Danube Bridge rebuilt after the siege in THIS article.
The Soviet plan was to occupy Budapest in just days, but German resistance was so heavy that it cost tens of thousands of lives. The Soviet troops could not take as many military hostages as they should have to explain the “lateness” because the Germans and Hungarians did not lay down their weapons. As a result, they took civilians from all over Hungary. They took even Jews, miraculously surviving the concentration camps of the Nazi Germany and coming home.
Read also:
- Budapest was completely bombed during World War II – here is our PHOTO GALLERY
- Buda Castle among the most popular castles in Europe – details in THIS article
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