Mansions in Hungary [antikvár]

In Hungary some ten diousand buildings are kept on tlie rolls of the authority dealing wiOi the preservation of historical monuments, and of tliese approximately seven hundred mansions and country houses enjoy protection. If we consider also the buildings which have remained outside die range of protection and tliose which in recent decades have been left to tlieir fate, demolished or simply disappeared, then the total number of mansions and manor-houses that have existed on Hungarian territory in the last few centm-ies wiU top fire one thousand mark. Tlie builders of these edifices, tlie members of the one-time landed nobility, have all tlirough the ages made use of the very best of the material and spiritual resources at tlieir disposal and commensurate witli their needs when erecting their homes. Tilings happened in much the same way all over Europe, and thus the mansions have become relics embodying die outstanding values of secidar architecture, together with other branches of the arts represented in diem, e.g. painting, sculpture and applied art, in Hungary as weU as in other parts of Europe. At the same time the mansions have acted as repositories of ctdture, as centres of philosophical acti^'ity, literature and book publishing, music and theatre, and occasionally also political life, as well as as centres which directed the course of European and Hungarian history and culture. In short, the mansions in Hungary serve as eloquent witnesses to the past In this book a brief survey of the history of Hungarian mansion building will be given. Photographs wiU accompany the text and a short historical description wiU be given ofsome fifty mansions. Of course tliere WiU be room to discuss only a tiny firaction of what was built and what existed in Hungary, both in its present-day as well as its pre-Trianon territory. Notwithstanding its shortcomings this work will en-deavoiu: to present an overview of die process over several centuries, during which the mansions became a distinct, clearly defined type of building, and also show how this building activity progressed and came to flourish.