Zeidler Miklós: Sporting Spaces - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2000)

ditional ones like fencing, riding and sharp-shooting were standardised.

That the initial exclusiveness of sport did not last long is shown by its growing popularity with ladies as well as the lower classes, which is why they had come to provide social life with another locale by the turn of the century.

The period was still the age of the “all-round sportsman”, a type that was later to disappear with the advent of professionalism, since it is hardly possible to excel in more than one sport. As the seasons of preparation and competition were extended and as up-to-date methods of training became prevalent, athletes needed permanent sports facilities. This was also necessitated by the incredibly rapid proliferation of amateur sports. It soon became a major consideration for competitive as well as amateur athletes to be able to practice their various sports activities all year round; hence the demand for indoor swimming pools and covered stadia.

In the next stage the selection of the best, the Olympic movement and the competitions involving national teams transformed sport into a matter of national pride. That was certainly the case in Hungary, where the urge to assert the country’s worth normally characterising small nations was compounded with the fact that this particular small country came out of the Great War on the losing side and endured various political setbacks in consequence. Politicians were quick to recognise the potential propaganda value of sport and exploit the achievements of Hungarian athletes insisting that the country’s results at international events demonstrated the superiority of Hungarians’ national character. All this, however, pointed towards the same conclusion: competitive sport had become one of the most important, if not the most important, branches of the entertainment industry. And this industry created its own infrastructure: sports buildings, and an army of supporting experts as communications networks came into being to provide a background.

The FIRST SPORTS FACILITIES

The first modern “sports facilities” of Hungary’s capital-shooting ranges built at the end of the 17th century after Buda was retaken from its Turkish occupiers-are

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