Understand
Castle Hill, known as Várhegy in Hungarian, was first settled in the thirteenth century, after a Mongol attack led Buda's citizens to seek a more easily defended neighborhood. The royal Hungarian court also decided to move, to the southern end of the hill. By the fourteenth century, there were an estimated 8,000 residents in Buda. After a long 1541-1686 period of Turkish rule, a 75-day siege left Buda in ruins, and Austrian authorities counted a mere 300 people left. This would not be the last heavy attack on Castle Hill. In 1849 and 1945 the Baroquified area once more came under attack. A completely surrounded German force held out for almost a month in January 1945, in the thirty-first siege of the city.
