Name of Object:

The Royal Palace at Buda as a University

Location:

Budapest, Közép-Magyarország / Central Hungary, Hungary

Holding Museum:

Budapest History Museum

 About Budapest History Museum, Budapest

Date of Object:

1777

Artist(s) / Craftsperson(s):

Johann Ernst Mansfeld (Mannsfeld) (1739, Prague – 1796, Vienna) and Ferdinand Pichler (18th century)

Museum Inventory Number:

Lanfranconi 134

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Engraving and etching on paper

Dimensions:

H: 18.5 cm; w: 30.4 cm

Type of object:

Print (Engraving/etching; veduta)

Description:

At the end of the 18th century, the Hungarian aristocracy expressed a desire to turn the reconstructed Royal Palace at Buda back into a royal residence. Following reconstruction of 1750–1770, the palace was used only once by Queen Maria Theresia. From 1777, the University of Nagyszombat (Trnava) was located in Buda, and from this time up until 1784 the Royal Palace was used as the university. This is the only representation of the royal castle in Buda being used as the university during the 18th century.

The engraving and etching is an excellent example of a Baroque veduta representing the Royal Palace at Buda, a building of outstanding importance, being used as university at the end of the 18th century.

How date and origin were established:

On the basis of the signature

How Object was obtained:

Transferred from the Capital’s collection in 1945.

Selected bibliography:

Budapest az Újkorban (Budapest in the Modern Times), (ed. G. Szvoboda Dománszky), Budapest, 1995, p.23.

Citation of this web page:

Beatrix  Basics "The Royal Palace at Buda as a University" in "Discover Baroque Art", Museum With No Frontiers, 2026.
https://baroqueart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;BAR;hu;Mus11_A;45;en

Prepared by: Beatrix Basics
Copyedited by: Terézia BardiTerézia Bardi

SURNAME: Bardi
NAME: Terézia Anna

AFFILIATION: National Trust of Monuments for Hungary

TITLE: Art Historian, Vice Director for Research at The National Trust of
Monuments for Hungary; MWNF DBA local co-ordinator (Hungary), author
and copy-editor

CV:
Terézia Bardi, Vice Director for Research at the National Trust of Monuments for Hungary since 2004, was awarded her MA in History and History of Art at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. After a period of fellowships mainly in Italy, Terézia gained her PhD from the Faculty of Art History at the same university for her thesis Presentation and Representation – the European Reception of the Liberation of Buda in 1686: Feast and Public Opinion. Her main fields of research are 17th-and18th-century Baroque and Rococo: the spectacles, festival decorations and associated iconography – including theatre productions of the period – and interior decoration of historic houses. Since 1988, she has edited a number of art historical books that include some on Oriental art and architecture. She is MWNF DBA’s local (Hungarian) co-ordinator, author and copy-editor.
Translation by: Beatrix Basics
Translation copyedited by: Mandi GomezMandi Gomez

Amanda Gomez is a freelance copy-editor and proofreader working in London. She studied Art History and Literature at Essex University (1986–89) and received her MA (Area Studies Africa: Art, Literature, African Thought) from SOAS in 1990. She worked as an editorial assistant for the independent publisher Bellew Publishing (1991–94) and studied at Bookhouse and the London College of Printing on day release. She was publications officer at the Museum of London until 2000 and then took a role at Art Books International, where she worked on projects for independent publishers and arts institutions that included MWNF’s English-language editions of the books series Islamic Art in the Mediterranean. She was part of the editorial team for further MWNF iterations: Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean Virtual Museum and the illustrated volume Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean.

True to its ethos of connecting people through the arts, MWNF has provided Amanda with valuable opportunities for discovery and learning, increased her editorial experience, and connected her with publishers and institutions all over the world. More recently, the projects she has worked on include MWNF’s Sharing History Virtual Museum and Exhibition series, Vitra Design Museum’s Victor Papanek and Objects of Desire, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s online publication 2 or 3 Tigers and its volume Race, Nation, Class.

MWNF Working Number: HU 68