Agria 38. (Az Egri Múzeum Évkönyve - Annales Musei Agriensis, 2002)
Feld István: Műemlékvédelem és várkultusz Egerben
den letzten Jahrzehnten ausgeführten, modernen Ergänzungen der südwestlichen Turmbauten schon als problematisch erscheinen. Es ist nur zu hoffen, daß die heutige Mode des „Wideraufbaus" der Baudenkmäler den typischen Charakter der Burg von Eger, dieser nationalen Kultstätte, nicht zerstören wird. István Feld The Preservation of Ancient Monuments and the Cult of the Castle in Eger The cults of important historical sites have played an important role in the development of the preservation of ancient monuments throughout Europe. It is from this point of view that Eger Castle proves to be a particularly instructive case study. There is not a single Hungarian who is not familiar with the fortress whose defenders put up such a magnificent defence against the Ottomans four hundred and fifty years ago. Nevertheless the fact remains that the site was being used as a quarry as recently as the late 18 th century. It wasn't only the ruins of the medieval cathedral which were dismantled at this time, substantial parts of the castle walls were also destroyed. The origins of the historic cult go back to the 1830s when Archbishop Pyrker arranged for a mausoleum to be created for the heroes of the Turkish period. This initiative did not however amount to anything resembling building preservation. On the contrary the destruction continued. A part of the north-eastern corner bastion fell victim to the building of the railway as late as 1906. After some smaller, sometimes rather amateurish archaeological investigations during the second half of the 19 th century, the castle had to wait until 1925 before regular archaeological investigations got underway, a private enterprise inspired by Géza Gárdonyi's famous novel The Stars of Eger. It was an initiative which prompted the state building preservation authorities to turn their attention to the fortress. The initial archaeological and conservation work focused primarily on the "underground passages", namely the cannon chambers and the anti-mining passageways. Interestingly, despite not actually having been in existence during the course of the 1552 siege, having being built at the end of the 16 th century, these passages are currently the castle's main attraction. Between the two world wars the remains of the medieval cathedral were also excavated, but the experts have yet to find a satisfactory way of preserving the walls which have been uncovered. The golden age of the preservation of the castle came in the period after 1957 when the whole site took on the function of a museum. This marked the beginning of more than thirty years of intensive and well-prepared work undertaken with the co-operation of the the Országos Műemlékvédelmi 272
