Tamási Judit szerk.: Oszlopokat emeltünk, hogy beszéljék a múltat, A millenniumi műemlékhelyreállítások lexikona (Budapest, 2000)

RESUME In categories 2,4 and 5 there also was a possibility to hand in applications for financial assistance for the architectural heritage with a Hungarian bearing beyond the frontier. 101 such applications were received from the neighbouring countries and 49 accepted applications were awarded a total sum of 28,694 thousand HUF. An advantage of the application system is that grants are quickly received directly by the grantee. This can obviously be one explanation to the fact that one can say without exaggeration that, upon the announcement of the application, the country roused, and the total sum applied for was over 37 thousand million HUF (cca 145 million USD)! This extraordinary interest also proves that there really is a great demand for supporting - via applications the restoration of our architectural heritage. It is also remarkable to what an extent the application encouraged the owners of historic monuments to mobilise their own resources. Though bearing record to own financial resources was a condition only in Category 2, in the case of the total number of applicants own resources covered 17% of the grant applied for on average, and among the award-winners this was 19%. This means that it were the applicants themselves who hunted up those non-governmental financial resources which can be made interested in monument restoration. In this respect the application system can be considered a special one, inasmuch as its primary grantee is not the applicant but the monument itself. The responsible minister regarded this as a major standpoint when awarding the grants, therefore preference was given to such minor grants which aimed at restoring the substance of several monuments simultaneously. As in Categories 1 and 3 applications could be handed in not only in the case of listed monuments but also in the case of buildings under local protection, and in Category 4 no legal protection of either kind was a condition, the Application meant a step forward into the direction of handling our whole architectural heritage as part of the national cultural heritage, independent of the fact certain items of it are legally protected, too, or not. A "secondary product" of the application system is a survey of wants, similar to a public opinion poll, regarding the intentions of owners, users, trustees concerning the substance of monuments. In that way up-to-date information can be acquired for strategic planning, making the necessarily limited state action more effective. © The Millenary Programme of the Hungarian National Board for the Protection of Historic Monuments ( OMvH) OMvH and its organisations take an active part in all millenary programmes related to architectural heritage, initiated on government or ministry level. Nevertheless, it also seemed to be reasonable that OMvH, being the number one responsible organisation for government tasks related to historic monuments, should also have a plan of its own for the millennial year. Therefore the management of the Board compiled the organisation's own millennial programme acting within its own sphere of authority. Though the programme is of a complex character, including exhibitions, publications and special programmes, too, this time we can only touch upon monument restorations. With concentrating the available intellectual and financial resources and speeding up the works being done, the aim of the programme is that restorations in programmes would be finished in honour of the Millennium or, in those cases when this is not possible, at least an important, well definable part would be finished (Szikszó, Calvinist church, Sopron, St Michael church, Ják, the Abbot's House etc.). O Saving Ecclesiastical Heritage Since 1990 Hungarian Governments committed themselves to strive to settle the ownership questions of the onetime nationalised real estate property that used to be owned by the churches. Those buildings which had already been returned to the churches were in a rather bad condition. The careless management practice of the state, going on for decades, caused grave damages in the whole of this very valuable historic monument stock. The financial assistance serving the restoration of ecclesiastic monuments was designed and approved of after the law on the financial conditions of the religious life and public activities of the churches was enacted. Its basic aim was to protect, restore and enlarge those historic monuments which serve religious life or public purposes (culture, education, collections) and/or are of townscape importance, together with carrying out other necessary investments, continuing the ongoing ones and assuring finishing them. In 1999, based on the relevant decision of the Parliament, altogether 1,100 million HUF was available, while the churches had 460 million HUF own resources. In the course of decision-making, in agreement with the churches, the special point of view was also considered that the applications