Tamási Judit szerk.: Oszlopokat emeltünk, hogy beszéljék a múltat, A millenniumi műemlékhelyreállítások lexikona (Budapest, 2000)

submitted by the churches should fit the aims of the Millenary programme as a whole and it was also an important point that the grants should not result in torsos of building investments that are left unfinished. © Saving the Values of Ecclesiastic Cultural Heritage and Other investments In Hungary the changing of the regime was carried out according to the privatisation principle, which means that churches could reclaim only their functional property (to be used for public purposes), but they cannot get back the one-time active property that used to be used for upkeeping the former. It follows from the above that the government feels it to be its duty that for equal expectations equal help should be provided - that is, for fulfilling the same tasks the churches should be provided the same subsidy as local authorities do. The aim of the allowance is the protection, renovation, enlargement of church-owned real-estate property used for religious life, collections, public, educational or cultural purposes, regardless of the fact if the building is a listed monument or not; and also the carrying out of any necessary building investment. Before the decision of the government was made the churches were requested to submit an application concerning the renovation work to be done, including a detailed budget plan and financial scheduling. Using their own resources and others (e.g. foreign and national donations etc.), the churches had more than 1,000 million HUF to add to the state money. Just to mention some of the suggested programmes: support for all faculties of the Pázmány Péter Catholic University, the Calvinist Bethesda Hospital for Children, the Calvinist College of Pápa, the "Fasori" Lutheran secondary school, the synagogues in Jánoshalma, Makó and Mátészalka. Out of the 101 applications more than 40 are listed monuments. A major part of the restoration work that had been started can be finished in the Millennium years. © The Restoration of the St Stephen Cathedral in Budapest The neo-renaissance cathedral, designed by Miklós Ybl, the greatest Hungarian master of historicism, was built between 1851-1905. The best-known contemporary painters, sculptors and artist craftsmen took part in working on the ornaments. During the siege of Budapest between December 1944 - February 1945 the cathedral was badly damaged. To make matters worse, after the siege a rough-and-ready restoration was made, and unprofessional work resulted in such a large-scale and aggressive fungus decay that the infection spread even into the plastering and the bricks as well. Because of the worse and worse air pollution the facades, stone ornaments and statues carved of soft limestone started to decay. The congregation did not have the money to properly support continuous maintenance. Restoration was started in 1985 sponsored by central (government) money, with the aim of an expert repair of the above-mentioned problems. The big dome, the pair of towers looking over to the Danube, the complete roofing and the gallery of apostles above the sanctuary were made by 2000. The complete interior and exterior restoration is supposed to be finished by the end of the decade. © Millenary Investments - Budapest, Szent György Square Reconstruction of the Szent György (St George) square had always been a part of the rehabilitation programme of the Royal Castle after World War II, but it was only the rebuilding of the Várszínház (Castle Theatre) which in fact was carried out. The building of the one-time Carmelite monastery way restored but no appropriate function was found for it up to the present day. The structural restoration of the Sándor palace was followed only by a renovation of the facade, finished by the end of the 1980s. And the fate of the buildings characteristic of the west side of the square had become complete or partial destruction. From the millennium point of view a proper rehabilitation of the Buda castle and its surroundings is of symbolic meaning. In 1999 a decision was passed by the government: 1. The Sándor palace should be restored according to the historic and constitutional traditions, making it suitable to house the cabinet. 2. In the one-time Carmelite monastery an institution fitting to and serving the function of the Sándor palace and the Várszínház should be placed. 3. Using the remains of the one-time Ministry of Defence a public institution should be constructed, organically with the new building to be erected behind it. 4. The area on the west side of the square (which is presently vacant, though it used to be built over with buildings similarly valuable as those that had survived) will not