PHOTOS: Ottoman pasha’s renewed spire opened to the public in the Buda Castle

The interior and exterior of the spire of Karakas pasha in the Buda Castle have been completely renewed in the Northern end of the Csikós Garden. Furthermore, this week, it opened to the public. There is an info centre, a gift shop and a café in the 400-year-old building.

According to pestbuda.hu, the renovation of the tower is part of the renewal of the Buda Castle District. In the Middle Ages, the Csikós Garden was surrounded by walls since it was part of the fort’s defence system. That is where a new district was born during the Ottoman occupation (1541-1683). Moreover, Mehmed Karakas, a pasha of the Budin Pashalik around 1620, built here a tower, Krisztina Sikota, deputy CEO of the Várkapitányság Zrt, the operator of the Buda Castle, said in a press conference.

The twelvefold cannon tower was built of carved cobblestone and was in its original form even in the 19th century. However, during the renovation and renewal of the castle designed by Alajos Hauszmann in 1898, the tower was dismantled. That is how they created the brand-new Palota Street. Interestingly, László Zsolnai, a Hungarian archaeologist, highlighted that the Karakas pasha spire was built before the Ottoman occupation. He added that it was part of the Zsigmond-era (1387-1437) defence system of the Buda fort. HERE we wrote about the Middle Ages public baths of Budapest.