": "Fővárosunk. Irta Táncsics Mihály. Hasonmás kiadás - Budapest Főváros Levéltára forráskiadványai 8. (Budapest, 1976)
On „Our Capital" by Mihály Táncsics
baths in Buda, etc. The value of Táncsics' writing is not diminished by the fact that some of his ideas became outdated technically and others were not realized owing to shortsighted local interests. Táncsics, who was well acquainted with European capitals like Berlin, Paris and London, did not neglect the social consequences of city development either. It is mentioned in his writings that on his journey in Western Europe two decades earlier he had also noticed the contradictions inherent in urbanization while he had been studiing the possibilities of a way out of the troubled conditions at home soaking the realization of the liberal and democratic ideas. It is not by chance that while he was dreaming in his cell of Pest-Buda as a metropolis rivalling the West-European cities in beauty, material and cultural values, he imagined a capital in the region between the Danube and the Tisza that would not be ,,the den of luxury, riches and misery, of debauchery and all vices.' : He believed th it ,,bare walls, however high and upright, do not make the city beautiful in themselves". He knew that ,,it is the people who give life to a town, who adorn it with beauty if they themselves are sound in body and soul, healthy, strong and lofty in spirit . . .". This was why he demanded that the construction of ,,cellar-like dwellings beneath the surface of the earth" be stopped, thermal baths modernized and nationalized, so that ,,the invalid poor coming from all parts of the country could get a healthy room for a- moderate price without any distinction". He also spoke of the necessity of opening new promenades and parks, and last but not least of the need to let those without property give voice to their opinions in matters concerning the public affairs of the joint capitals. Some of Táncsics' ideas came true, his plans were put to practice, some were outdone by reality and some vere realized in a much simpler or poorer way than what this pioneer of Hungarian democracy had dreamed it to be. In the appendix the reader will find the development programmes of committees delegated by the municipal councils of Pest and Buda in 1868 and can compare them with those of Táncsics, and is sure to find them to be very similar at several points. The book introduced here to the reader is very edifying, as we can witness desires, dreams, ideas and possibilities experienced more than one hundred years ago, characteristic not so much of the foreseen present, than of the author, who became an out-and-out city-dweller, a lover of the capital from the son of one-time serfs.
