page_title: Siege of Buda (1849)
section_title: Preparations for the defense of Buda
hierarchical_section_title: Siege of Buda (1849) / Preparations for the defense of Buda
caption_attribution_description: English: The Hungarian capitals Pest and Buda in 1850
context_page_description: The Siege of Buda was the siege of the Buda castle, part of the twin capital cities of the Kingdom of Hungary, by the Hungarian revolutionary army led by General Artúr Görgei during the Hungarian War of Independence. Part of the Spring Campaign, the siege began on 4 May 1849 and ended with the Hungarian capture of the castle by assault on 21 May. Actually it was the only fortress in the whole war to be taken by storm by the besiegers on either side. All the rest only capitulated after agreements between besiegers and besieged. The siege of Buda was also the shortest siege of the war. The senseless bombardment of Pest by Major General Heinrich Hentzi, the Austrian commander, destroyed the classicist buildings on the shores of the Danube, but other parts of the capitals also suffered heavy damage because of the artillery duels between the two sides. The capture of Buda Castle completed the liberation of the Hungarian capital cities. Thanks to this, the second Hungarian revolutionary Government led by Bertalan Szemere together with Governor-President Lajos Kossuth returned from Debrecen, the interim capital of the Hungarian revolution, to the real capital of Hungary.
context_section_description: The Castle of Buda, or as it is also known, the Upper Town of Buda (budai felsőváros) lies on a hill 167 meters above sea level, and 70 meters above the Danube which flows beneath it. This so-called Castle Hill (Várhegy) has an oblong irregular shape of a sharp triangle with its tip towards the south and its base towards the north. Its length is 660 meters, and concerning its two edges, it is as it follows: on its northern, wider side with the Royal Palace is 156 meters high, while in its southern edge is 163 m high and 150 m wide. The castle hill is surrounded by suburbs, with the Danube to the east 260-meter-wide (850 ft), Gellért Hill to the south 235-meter-high (771 ft) Naphegy 158-meter-high (518 ft) and Little Gellért Hill (Kis-Gellérthegy) 168-meter-high (551 ft) to the southwest, Kissváb Hill (Kissvábhegy) 249-meter-high (817 ft) to the west, and Rókus Hill (Rókushegy or Rézmál) 249-meter-high (817 ft) to the northwest; also to the northwest are Ferenc Hill (Ferenchegy or Vérhalom) 265-meter-high (869 ft) and Kálvária Hill (Kálvária-hegy) 161-meter-high (528 ft), and József Hill (Józsefhegy or Szemlőhegy) 232-meter-high (761 ft) and Rózsa Hill (Rózsadomb) 195-meter-high (640 ft) to the north. Across the Danube to the east there are no heights near the castle. The height of the walls surrounding the castle was not uniform. They were punctuated by old circular bastions, called rondellas, and newer, polygonal bastions, close enough together to enable them to bring fire to bear on enemy attacking the walls between them. The fact that there were no moats, beneath the walls, and that the hill was surrounded by houses and gardens except for around the four castle gates, made the besiegers’ job easier. The castle's defenses were of 16th century standard, because the fortification modernization of later periods had almost no effect on this castle without exterior walls and defenses and consisting only of a "core fort". The most important defenses of the castle were its walls surrounding the edges of the Castle Hill. This wall was built in different periods, and was repaired in various ways in the 163 years between the sieges of 1686 and 1849. Because of this it was of different widths, without embrasures, protective structures, etc., and lacking the most elementary elements of modern siege technology. The gates were mostly vestiges of the past rather than real castle gates, lacking trenches or drawbridges. Comparing it with Hungarian castles like Arad, Temesvár, Komárom, Gyulafehérvár, Pétervárad or Eszék, it can be said that it was centuries behind these, and because of this the intention to defend it came as a surprise to many. But the imperials understood the importance of holding the Castle of Buda as long as they could, both for political and symbolic reasons as well because of having accumulated a huge store of military equipment there, and they did not want to give all of these up so easily.
  The strengthening of the castle of Buda in post-revolution Hungary started after Lieutenant Field Marshal Josip Jelačić 's Croatian army entered Hungary to overthrow Lajos Batthyány's national Hungarian government and was advancing on the Hungarian capitals. But the first plans for this were drawn up after Jelačić had been defeated at Pákozd on 29 September 1848 and retreated from Hungary. Although the enemy retreated, the fear he had caused made the Hungarians think about strengthening Buda and Pest. They carved out arms stores in the rock of the Gellért Hill. At the beginning of October 1848, Artillery Lieutenant József Mack published a detailed plan to defend the capitals in the newspaper Kossuth Hírlapja (Kossuth's Gazette). In this work Mack wrote that it was not true that the castle could not be defended, saying that with the 50 cannon in the castle any enemy could easily be kept at a distance. He claimed that enemy artillery could only threaten the castle from Gellért Hill, and that with just six 24-pdr cannon he could prevent anyone from installing their batteries there. He also said that the cannon could prevent enemy 
caption: The Hungarian capitals Pest and Buda in 1850 (in German language).
   Districts of Buda (in German Ofen):
   – Festung (The Buda Castle),
   – Wasser-Stadt = Vízváros (Watertown),
   – Christina-Stadt = Krisztinaváros (Christinatown),
   – Land-Strasse = Országút (Main Road),
   – Raitzen-Stadt = Rácváros (Serbian Town).
   Hills:
   – St. Gerhards Block = Gellérthegy (Gellért Hill),
   – Sonnen Spiess = Naphegy (Sun Hill).
   The Gates of the Buda Castle: – Wasser Tor = Vízikapu (Water Gate),
   – Burg Tor = Várkapu (Castle Gate),
    – Weissbrg Tor = Fehérvári kapu (Székesfehérvár Gate),
   – Wiener Tor = Bécsi kapu (Vienna Gate), 
   Other important locations during the siege:
   – Kettenbrücke = Lánchíd (Chain Bridge),
   – Köngl. Schloss = Budavári palota (Kings castle),
   – Georgi Platz = Szent György tér (St. George Square),
   – Fischer B. = Halászbástya (Fishermans Bastion),
   – Zeughaus = Fegyvertár (Arsenal),
   – Margarethen Insel = Margitsziget (Margaret Island)
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