Mansions in Hungary [antikvár]

In Hungary some ten thousand buildings are kept on the rolls of the authority dealing with the preservation of historical monuments, and of diese approximately seven hundred mansions and country houses enjoy protection. If we consider also die buildings which have remained outside the range of protection and those which in recent decades have been left to dieir fate, demolished or simply disappeared, then the total number of mansions and manor-houses that have existed on Hungarian territory in die last few centuries will top die one thousand mark. Hie builders of these edifices, die members of die one-time landed nobility, have all through die ages made use of die very best of the material and spiritual resourcesat dieir disposal and commensurate with dieir needs when erecting their homes. Things happened in much die same way all over Europe, and thus die mansions have become relics embodying die outstanding values of secular architecture, together widi odier branches of the arts represented in them, e.g. painting, sculpture and applied art, in Hungary as well as in other parts of Europe.At the same time die mansions have acted as repositories of culture, as centres of philosophical activity, literature and book publishing, music and theatre, and occasionally also political life, as well as centres which directed die course of European and Hungarian history and culture. In short, die mansions inHungary serve as eloquent witnesses to die past In this book a brief survey of die history of Hungarian mansion building will be given. 1 'hotographs will accompany die text and a short historical description will be given of some fifty mansions. Of course diere will be room to discuss only a tiny fraction of what was built and what existed in Hungary, bodi in its present-day as well as its pre-Trianon territory. Notwithstanding its shortcomings diis work will endeavour 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 diis building activity progressed and cameto flourish.