Sándor Palace [antikvár]

RENOVATION, RESTORATION, OR RECONSTRUCTION? kj anclor Palace, a private palace on Buda's possibly most beautiful spot, which served as the home and office of Hungary's prime ministers from 1867 to 1944, has been rebuilt after more than flftj' years in ruins. It is a festive moment for many: for the lovers of monuments who were mourning for the city's finest palace in empire and early classicist style; for the admirers of Buda who were watching this memento of the Second Worid War with a grieving heart in the part of the citj' that represented the history of the capital inhabited by two million people. A multitude of reasons called for reconstruction, but It needed a political will which interpreted the post-1945 abolition of the premier's palace as the emblem of Hungary's squashed independence and wanted to demonstrate its recovery. The task thus defined outlined the job of the specialists: they were to restore the remains of the building on the basis of the widest possible historical knowledge and reconstruct what had perished. That was how the mass, facade, and most interior spaces of the building were completed by experienced conservationists. The bombings demolished the middle of the facade together with the representative suite of rooms of the premier's office, whose architectural value was on a par with its historic value. The second task was its reconstruction, the creation of its copy It is not unusual to make copies of paintings, sculptures, objects that can be held in hand, but to make a copy of a building adjusted to the needs of the time span of a century and a half is quite extraordinary. The exceptional worth of the Sándor Palace resided in its interior spaces of which shots survive from the advent of photography The plenitude of visual sources and documents allowed for what the architect's imagination has to make up for elsewhere: the authentic reconstruction of the perished parts and furnishings. Selection and accentuation were necessary, and certain points had to be reformulated. Masters of wainscoting, pseudo marble, or stucco work differently from the designers of furniture and from those who adorn the premier's palace with pictures. The result is the ideal image of the prime minister's palace in the age of the Compromise: its architectural parts stand for the early classicist residence of the Counts Sándor and the additions designed by Miklós Ybl, while its interior furnishing reflects the representation of the 1870s. The pictorial decorations evoke the age that was held in high esteem both by the generations around the Compromise and today: the memor>' of the generation of 1848 who fought for the independence of Hungary. The modern sections of the palace harmonise artistically with the classical interiors. The authors of this book were ail involved in the reconstruction of Sándor Palace. They are going to report on the history of the palace that took shape in the walls and on their own work as well.