royal palace and fortress of Visegrád
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The Illustrated chronicle mentions Charles I Visegrád town house as the scene of Felician Zách's murderous attempt in 1330. At that time there were several large mansions in the territory of today's palace, one of them must have belonged to the king. The majority of the buildings were demolished in the middle of the 14th century, the other houses were rebuilt and a palace was built around a spacious yard. Louis I started to enlarge the palace in the 1370s, but the construction works were finished according to Sigismund's new plans around 1400. In the central axis of the square territory surrounded by walls there was a chapel opposite the gate tower. To the north the royal residence with a two-storey well-house in the yard. Above the building an ornamental garden was created in the mountain side. In the northern part of the lower yard were a ceremonial hall and other representative rooms. South of the chapel there were the chamber house, the treasury and the residence of the principal of the palace. The fencing space was on the southern part of the yard. The model of the regular buildings of the palace might have been the papal palace of Avignon, but the fortresses of Diósgyőr and Zólyom also influenced the architect.
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the fortress of Visegrád
It was built to the order of Queen Maria and Béla IV between 1249-1265. The fortress consists of two parts: the earlier part, the upper fortress protected by a tower, gate tower and guard towers and the lower fortress which joined the upper one with a closing wall in the valley. The hexagonal living tower was here. Charles I had an inner wall built around the living tower. There was a mint house on the upper terrace of this. The levels of the tower were separated by walls. The chapel of St John the Baptiser - which was finished in 1325 - may have stood here. The three-storey palace wing, which was in the eastern part of the fortress, was built at the beginning of the 14th century. The other two palace wings, the moat and the second wall were built in the third third of the century. Sigismund had an outer wall and a women's residence built next to the old tower of the inner fortress.
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