Urbs - Magyar várostörténeti évkönyv 4. (Budapest, 2009)
Recenziók
450 Abstracts ÁGOTA LÍDIA ISPÁN Usage of space and urban image in Leninváros The subject of this study is the socialist-era image of Leninváros conveyed to the public by press photographs and articles. The foundation of the town in the second half of the 1950s transformed what was fundamentally an agricultural landscape into an industrial one. Wide-angle photographic views - reinforced by the narrative of the articles — presented Leninváros as having grown out of “nothing”, i.e. agricultural land. The press of the time presented socialist-driven industrialisation as a victory over the natural elements. It took many years, however, for the neat drawing-board plan to be implemented, and instead of the “stunning view”, visitors were presented with a disordered picture of a town under construction. Affairs within the town were no closer to ideal, because the industrial development required such an influx of population that housing had to be given priority over community buildings, whose delay and absence caused much unpleasantness for the inhabitants. Neither did the ubiquitous system-built multi-storey blocks fulfil the hopes invested in them; their uniformity created monotony and emptiness. The real breakthrough in the formal and structural development of the town occurred only after the political transition, when buildings hitherto deprecated for economic and ideological reasons (e.g. detached houses and churches) also found a place in the town. Provision of institutions for the leisure activities classed as an integral part of culture was an important consideration for socialist towns. Consequently, community centres, parks and leisure centres had a prominent place alongside dwellings and industry in the functional layout of Leninváros. The town leadership paid considerable attention to tending public parks, and in 1976 Leninváros was awarded the “Clean Town in Bloom” prize, which it seized on as an image-boosting slogan. TÍMEA N. KOVÁCS “Learning to live”, or the birth of Uránváros In 1955, the opening of the country’s only uranium mine a few kilometres from Pécs prompted plans for a new district on the former military aerodrome, the later Uránváros [“Uranium-town”]. Being associated with an industrial development of strategic importance, the uranium miners’ new housing estate was a priority project. It was
