Estók János szerk.: A Magyar Mezőgazdasági Múzeum Közleményei 2005-2007 (Budapest, 2007)

MÚZEUMTÖRTÉNETI TANULMÁNYOK - Rosch Gábor: A városligeti Vajdahunyadvár és tervezője, Alpár Ignác

Vajdahunyad Castle in City Park and its designed, Ignác Alpár GÁBORROSCH Ignác Alpár was born on 17 January 1855 in Pest-Buda into a tradesman's family of eight children. His family originally hailed from Styria in Austria. Through his father's joinery work he became acquainted with Alajos Hauszmann, the famous architect, who employed him in his studio as a draughtsman. Hauszmann encouraged him to study architecture abroad. Alpár started his studies at the Academy of Architecture in Charlottenburg. At the academy he gained distinction with his unusual diligence, strong persistence and excellent organizational skills - which he took advantage of throughout his career. After finishing academy, he worked in the Berlin studios of famous architects and made study trips to Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Italy and Tunisia. In 1881 Hauszmann offered him an assistant status at the Technical University at Budapest, which Alpár accepted and returned to Hungary. Apart from teaching he also worked in Hauszmann's studio and later he opened his own designing office. During his career he submitted altogether 39 competitive designs, out of which 23 won first and 5 won second prizes. He designed a total of 130 notable buildings. In Transylvania he designed the Szapáry Baths at Herkulesfürdő as well as two other baths near Nagyvárad and another at Pöstyén in Upper Hungary. He was commissioned with the design of the county halls of Segesvár, Dicsőszentmárton and Déva, which were followed by three further large county halls in Nagyenyed, Nyíregyháza and Kolozsvár. All county halls had a representative neo-Renaissance character both on their façades and in the interiors, except for the Nagyenyed one which showed the influence of the crenellated Renaissance style typical of Upper Hungary. The successes of these designs resulted in commissions for seven churches in Transylvania and one in the Southland. The values of Vajdahunyad Castle, built in the City Park, were appreciated in professional circles. He became the most engaged and most renowned architect of the country. His exceptional talent, diligence and organization - managerial skills in the modern sense - made him fit for this role. Within two decades he planned over 30 elementary and secondary schools and a university. His schools were characterized by a rather stern functionalism with excellent ground-plans - only the façades were dressed with Renaissance and Baroque elements. Several of his school buildings now function as universities, such as the University of Wood Industry at Sopron, the Academy of Music at Pozsony and the Babe§-Bolyai University at Kolozsvár. Apart from public buildings, his oeuvre also included several private homes, most of which are also dominated by neoRenaissance forms and decorations. However he gained international recognition by his designs for banks. His first successful bank building design was that of the Hungarian Merchant Bank of Pest in present-day Roosevelt Square. The interiors of his First Hungarian Savings Bank of Pest were made friendlier with sculptural decorations, lead glass windows and a special steelwork lantern-light roof made of glass bricks. His other design, the Hungarian National Bank in Szabadság Square was finished in 1905, facing the Stock Exchange Palace whose monumental façade dominates the Square.