A műemlékek sokszínűsége (A 28. Egri Nyári Egyetem előadásai 1998 Eger, 1998)

Előadások / Presentations - ÁGOSTHÁZI László: Szántódpuszta, a large farm in baroque style

- 13th January, 1961: SIOTOUR initiates the ban on planning and demolition, and protection for the architectural site -September, 1961: first survey of the site by Városépítési Tudományos és Tervező Intézet [Scientific Institute for Town-Planningl /VATI/ documented - 1962 to 1963: various studies conducted, suggestions made as to the utilisation of the site -April, 1964: first study on how to use the site completed by VÁTI - June, 1970: second study on how to use the site completed by VÁTI - May, 1971: OMF decides" to declare a total 29 buildings and constructions on the site protected - October, 1971 : development plan by VÁTI for the restoration of the historic site of Szántódpuszta. It is astonishing to go through the above dates: it took 11 years to have the comprehensive „scenario" of actual restoration, the development plan completed after the first official on-site inspection, where unreserved agreement was reached on the need for safeguarding. Meanwhile, the buildings on the puszta spent long years further deteriorating without being maintained by the local co-operative using them, and then were emptied and kept in a stand-by position by SIOTOUR. It was heart-breaking to see so many wind-haunted, decaying, apparently dead buildings. As from the 1970s, however, the scene started to look brighter. The reconstruction and development plan expressed the intention to convert the one-time manor buildings, as part of the cultural heritage, into a centre of Balaton-related tourism, culture, arts, ethnography and scientific research. This intention of course had to be in line with the regulations governing the puszta as a protected site, i.e. the criteria that any transformations to the buildings being restored had to be in compliance with the traditional principles of monument protection, and that the shaping of their environment also had to take place accordingly. In order to meet the former criteria, the restoration of each building was preceded by wall research and detailed diagnostic survey, the results of which were taken into account in planning. So far as the environment is concerned, its development was designed to avoid any overhead (telephone or electricity) wires, traditional wooden pylons were used for public lighting, with enamelled shade light bulbs, the manholes of the sewerage system were covered with ground. In the same spirit, the roads were left unpaved and are provided with drainage ditches on both sides. Only the „main square" of the restored puszta, accessible without restriction was provided with a covering, made of waterproof wooden disks. The couple of new facilities (including a porter's lodge, a cashier's office, summer stables, fences and gates etc.) required by the new function were built using forms and materials adapted to the overall picture of the site. MODERNISATION OF BUILDINGS AND CONSTRUCTIONS Reanimating Szántódpuszta and putting it to new use necessarily implied renovating, modernising the buildings and more or less transforming their interior. This was understood by the owner of the site, the authority for monument protection and of course the architects. In other words, that was the „price" of saving the 17th to 18th century buildings of the puszta. Each architectural and environmental operation aimed at safeguarding the spiritual assets" of the site was carried out bearing this in mind.

12 Here are now a few typical examples of this process. Converting the one-time labourers' houses, including both the earlier-built simpler ones and the vaulted, higher-standard ones from the middle of the 1800s, into comfortable suites was an obvious choice. The rooms became spacious, friendly hotel rooms with individual furniture, the one-time pantries were big enough to house a bathroom, a wardrobe and a toilet, the kitchens were transformed into nice living and