Fráter Jánosné: »Nemzeti részvét emelte« 100 évvel ezelőtt kezdték építeni az Akadémia palotáját (A MTAK kiadványai 28. Budapest, 1962)

100 years since the construction of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences'' building was begun For ¡1 hundred years now, the building of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences has stood near the Chain Bridge, bearing on its frontage the legend: "Raised by the contributions of the Nation". I. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences was formed through public donation. Costs were covered from the gifts of the founders, providing — according to the Academy's aims — for "the elaboration of the national language in all the varieties of the sciences and arts". It had, however, no building of its own and during the early phase of absolutism, when it was in particularly straitened financial circumstances, it could not even contemplate the erection of a house of its own. The development of the idea of building a palace for the Academy coincides roughly with its resuscitation after the paralysis which had beset it following the 1848 struggle for freedom, and with the upsurge of the national movements. It was towards the close of the 1850-s that the Academy celebrated, amid worthy circumstances, the centenary of the birth of Ferenc Kazinczy, the great reformer of the Hungarian language and organizer of literary activity. This was the first of a succession of events which expressed the protest of the Hungarian nation against Austrian oppression. The patriotic movement initiated to build the Academy a home, as a result of which a house costing 828.501 forints could be raised, was a part of this development. The history of the construction of the Academy building is thus an organic part of the institution's history. The first traces of the movement for the construction of the building may be discovered in the contemporary Hungarian papers as early as the middle of 1857. The expansion of the movement is associated with the name of Emil Dessewffy, the President of the Academy. The Management Council of the Academy passed a resolution that they considered it necessary and deemed the time appropriate to inaugurate a broadly based collection for building a home for the Hungarian Academy. At the end of 1859 and in 1800 they sent subscription sheets all over the country — to the counties, cities, institutions and corps, moreover to private individuals. The collection that was launched with this noble aim was a movement of such magnitude that in those days "it became a law of honour and of chivalry to contribute to the house of the Academy". Donations were sent not only by those persons and institutions to whom a special appeal was made, but were offered by all the strata of society, for the building of the palace and to increase the capital fund of the Academy. Beside gifts from famous Hungarian peers, scholars and artists, the pennies of the simple folk also figured among the contributions. The following are a few quotations from contemporary patriotic letters and other manuscripts which show the enthusiasm of the nation for the cause of the Academy. Frigyes Korányi, later to become a famous professor of internal medicine, who was then a rural doctor at Nagykálló wrote: "... It is inconsistent with the dignity of Hungary that the Hungarian Academy of Sciences should be lodged in a tenement house where it may hardly be discovered . . ." The contemporary papers, the Pesti Napló, Vasárnapi Ujsdg, etc. all collected, as did among others 190 workers of the Ózd Steel Works, members of the various guilds, 13