Műemlékállományunk bővülése, új műemlékfajták (Az Egri Nyári Egyetem előadásai 1987 Eger, 1987)

Nováki Gyula: Őskori és középkori földvárak Magyarországon

ANDRÁS ROMÁN , EXPANSION OF THE NOTION OF THE HISTORIC MONUMENT What is a historic monument? This light seem a ridiculously simple question, since many spend a great deal of their time working in the field of monument conservation, and all know what they themselves should like to see preserved, either as a vocation or a hobby. It is however a complex problem; it is hard to decide what a monument really is, there are no guages or litmus paper that can be used. The meaning of the term varies from time to time and place to place. The notion is defined in various different ways in Hungary. The legal definition of the term is different from the definition of the general public. In law, a historic monument is a building of particular importance: a fraction of our entire architectural heritage. The other buildings are referred to under a variety of different names. They are called monument-like buildings, buildings that constitute an important element in the townsape etc. In general usage, however, a monument is any protected building regardless of its legal status. From now on in this article, I shall use this definition. It will already have become clear that the notion "historic monument" is highgly subjective. The only objektivity involved is that a monument is always an important architectural or technical creation: we are talking about buildings on other architectural structures. This is not true everywhere though; in some countries archirectural fittings are also protected, along with the building itself. Here, legally, a historic monument is a building declared a monument by one or more officials. As far as the public is concerned, it is whatever building they consider to be of value. In my lecture, having analyzed the term. I shall quickly go on to give some examples. The terms historic monument and conservation are of a similar age and are closely related. The protection of real or perceivéd values is an instinctive act among both animals and humans. People have cared for their buildings, and their architectural and artistic heritage ever since they have recognized the existence of values. The discussion of the history of conservation is not the topic of this course and nor is it the subject of my paper. I therefore have no opportunity now to trace how the conservation movement was born in the XlXth century out of the Renaissance and how it was. based on the realization that the classical idea of beauty and art bore a direct message to modern man. In the modern sense of the word, conservation started in Renaissance Italy where Greek and Roman monuments were preserved. Interest later spread to Gothic architecture. The theoretical works of Winckelmann and the literary works of Goethe contributed in no small way to the genuine conservation of historic monuments in Europe in the XlXth century. The decision on what was to be protected was even less so the subject of theories. Violettle-Duc, Ruskin and others were more interested in answering the question „how" than „what". For a long time, no effort was made to define the term and it was only at the turn of the century that great art historians Alois Riegl, Georg Gottfried Dehio and Max Dvorak started this work. Riegl was the first person to define two vital elements—although not quite as we would today—historic and aesthetic significance. He was the first to point out the importance of historicity. His theory was further developed by Dehio and Dvorak. Dvorak was the first to demonstrate the wide range of the notion; he included a wide range of monuments and less significant buildings, including modern monuments. The Charter of Venice definition was based on this and formulated in 1964: "By historic monument, we man individual architectural creations and urban or rural ensembles which bear witness to some unique culture, important development or historic event. The notion of the historic monument not only covers major works, but also more simple works which have through the passage of time gained importance." I believe that the most complete and modem formulation of the notion was provided by Frigyes Pogány, who besides mentioning historic and aesthetic value, based on the ideas already discussed, also introduced the term ethic value. What does all this mean? When we discuss the historic value of a monument, we mean that it represents a slice of history. It tells us about the age in which it was created, its historical, economic, technical and artistic level of development. But is also tells us about latter periods, because buildings are continuously extended, converted, allowed to decay, or were restored or ignored and allowed to fall slowly into disrepair. The building may have been owned by different families, and have been the scence of a wide range of historic events. All this leaves its mark on the monument and this can be interpreted by experts. If we employ scientific techniques to highlight these features, the historic value of the building is further enhanced, and the building like a book tells us of the past. And this is why the XXth century realization is so im-