XX. századi műemlékek és védelmük (A 26. Egri Nyári Egyetem előadásai 1996 Eger, 1996)

Előadások: - Architecture and identtity

RUDOLF KLEIN ARCHITECTURE AND IDENTITY A.short survey of Hungarian 20th century architecture Introduction Hungarian 20th century architecture is specific and might be comprehended entirely only in the tontext of the cultural history of the country. Hungarian statehood goes back as far as 896. However, due to historic circumstantes Hungary's development was interrupted several times by invasions, occupations. After a promising flourish During the Renaissance, Hungary lost its independence for a very long time. In the first half of the 16th century a good part of the country was occupied by the Turks. After the liberation from the Ottoman rule, Hungary became a part of the Habsburg Empire. Although the Austro-Hungarian Compromise (Ausgleich) in 1867 gave the Hungarians a certain autonomy, full independence was achieved only after World War one. However, the price for it was enormous: Hungary lost two thirds of its former territory, becoming a small country deprived of several millions of its Hungarian speaking citizens and rich natural resources. As national independence could not be achieved until 1918, culture took over the role to make the Hungarians distinct from other people of the Habsburg Empire. Thus, national identity was a crucial issue. During the 19th century numerous cultural endeavours aimed at the achieving of a particular Hungarian identity, starting with the reform of the Hungarian language and ending with the attempts for the achievement of national architecture and arts. Architecture has become a medium via which national identity might be expressed and fostered. The idea of national expression in architecture was raised already by the eminent statesman, count István Széchenyi, but it took almost half a century to carry through these ideas in practice. The first fledgling of this tendency was the Redoute Building in Pest (1859—1864) designed by Frigyes Feszi. It is a Romantic edifice having on its facade some forms of Hungarian clothing. Of course, these modest elements could not create a national style, but they initiated something very important in Hungarian architectural history: The question of the connection between national identity and architecture was raised for the first time and during the coming 150 years it became a pivotal issue in the country. Thus, in Hungary architecture ceased to be a selfreferential artistic expression and became an ulterance of identity, either national or cultural. As a consequence, architectural development in Hungary during the 20th century differed from the mainstream scheme presented by the great historians of modern architecture, like Giedion, Russel-Hitchock, Zevi, Pevsner. Before the actual analysis of the course of architectural history during 20th century we shall scrutinise some overall characteristics of it.