Dr. Kubassek János: Cholnoky Jenő természetábrázoló művészete (Érd, 2002)
Dr. Tardy János: Előszó - Introduction
dinary versatility in sharing his field experience from excursions, purposefully organised field visits and research trips with the reading public. As a scholar deeply committed to his fatherland and also as the president of the National Conservation Council, he raised his voice several times for the protection of the threatened natural and cultural assets of the Balaton Uplands. In 1941, he wrote a memorandum to the Minister for Agriculture, pleading for the Monk Dwellings and geyser cones at Tihany, the basalt columns of Badacsony and Szent György Hill that he too considered unique in Europe, as well as for the maintenance of the masterpieces of folk architecture, such as the winepress houses, romantic and ancient inns, pensions churches, all of which bear a historical value. Cholnokv 7 performed a leading role in the Hungarian Speleological Society, being particularly active in karst and cave research. This activity is commermorated in the succesful Cholnoky competition that has been announced annually for more than a decade by the Authority for Nature Conservation, Ministry of Environment and the Hungarian society for Karst and Cave Research. The memory of the great scholar is preserved not only by dozens of books and hundreds of articles. Hungarian conservationists also remember this outstanding figure of Hungarian geography with due respect: his most beloved landscapes are now interpreted by highstandard study trails and visitior centres from Tihany to the Káli Basin. -At the Salföld Nature age, the Balaton Uplands National Park Authority exhibits Cholnoky's photos of the Balaton region taken in 19OO and compares them to recent conditions. Recording and comparing the events and landscape changes through the last century offers new methods to nature conservation as well. In this respect, Cholnoky's pictures provide an insight into the conditions of our most treatened and spectacular landscapes and formations a hundred years ago. The present book, published by the Hungarian Geographical Museum, gives an interesting and in many ways thought-provoking foretaste of the fruitful union of geography and arts, and presents a well-deserved commemoration of a long-time unjustly ignored and deliberately forgotten genius in geological sciences, professor Jenő Cholnoky, and his spiritual heritage. Budapest, 22 January 2002, Day of Hungarian Culture Dr. János Tardy Deputy Secretary of State Head of the Authority for Nature Conservation, Ministry of Environment
