Dobrossy István: Miskolc írásban és képekben (Miskolc, 1994)
Angol nyelvű ismertető
scientists, merchants and industrialists were among them. Their presence and memory is cherished by the Jewish cemetery on the Avas hill. They also transformed the sight of the inner city in their golden age. Multy-storeyed mansion-houses, business firms, banking buildings occured. After the holocaust, and especially at the beginning of the 1950's, most of their shops were nationalized. The collective property again modified the look of the settlement and its main streets. The buildings lost their former deco rative facades, they became simpler. Several houses were demolished in the inner city, in the historical part of Miskolc. The architectural styles of the 1950-1970's became dominant. Concrete gained ground as the most important basic material; prefab houses received an increasing role. The rehabilitation of the 1980's set the aim to survey and renovate the shabby cityscape. Within a decade, several buildings and blocks of the centre revived, gained back their original outer look and atmosphere. A good number of the essays in the volume brings out these changes on the examples of particular buildings, often spanning a whole century. During its history, the city has very often been afflicted by severe natural disasters, floods and blazes. In 1843 and 1845 fire (and water), in 1878 a flood caused anormous damage. At the same time, the latter presented the opportunity to improve the cityscape. A comprehensive town-replanning was compiled between 1894 and 1898, but consistent realization was hindered by the two world wars. The principles set at the end of the last century proved to be still realizable atter many decades. Today's road system of Miskolc is partly based on the replanning-lines then imagined. The home-construction wave, which started in the 1950's and accelereted within a decade, attracted citizens of the neighbouring settlements. Manpower was demanded and absorbed by the huge metallurgical industry of Diósgyőr. In the 1980's, about one-third of the population of the city were commuters, going to work by train. The big housing estates developed in this period. In the last twenty-five years the biggest of all: the Avas city quarter was built. The onetime tourist sight, the Avas 'hill' has been built up by now. By 1991-92, it gave home to almost sixty thousand people. The other part of the Avas is the slope facing the historical inner city. This part still gives place to several hundred wine cellars. For centures, wines of the environs and the Tokaji wine-growing district have been ripened here in the multy-storeyed cellar systems and have been transported to all parts of Europe. In front of the cellars there used to be a lot of inns that received tourists. Since 1963, the main attraction of the Avas has been the television transmitter tower, which became the symbol of the Avas as well. Certein essays and writings of the volume deal with the count of arms, old maps, old town- scapes of Miskolc. It surveys the history of the Avas hill and also introduces the story of the formed and present look-out towers there. The next chapter deals with the public buildings of the city. We can learn about the guildhall and county hall, the history of the theatre and the museum. We read about the buildings of the administration fo justice and financial administration, as well as about banking buildings. Most of the institutions were fully established at the end of the last century, therefore their buildings represent the architecture of the turning of the century. The third chapter deals with the main squares, statues, distinguished persons and freemen of the city. Miskolc was among the very first cities erecting public statues to outstanding figures of Hungarian 303
