In 2021 the Hungarian Museum of Architecture and Monument Protection Documentation Centre (MÉM MDK) in Budapest and the Institute of Art History (IPU) in Zagreb started a two year long bilateral research project titled Architectural Encounters of Croatia and Hungary: Modalities of Professional Knowledge Exchange, 1900–1945 supported by the Hungarian National Office for Research, Development and Innovation (2019-2.1.11-TÉT-2020-00258), and by the Croatian Ministry of Science and Education (MBP-IPU-2021-410).
Both Croatian and Hungarian research groups investigated ways of transferring knowledge based on study trips of architects and builders, professional journals, architectural and urban planning competitions, professional congresses and exhibitions. The research tasks were divided according to the profession and the results of previous research, and they jointly dealt with the relevant phenomena of the turn of the century and the period between the two world wars. Joint tours of buildings, libraries and archives on study trips to Zagreb, Rijeka and Budapest helped to define the key buildings and events, centres of knowledge transfer, which are presented in bilingual travelling exhibition.
The exhibition was opened at the Liszt Institute – Hungarian Cultural Centre in Zagreb on the 21st of September 2023. First PhD Anna Mladenovics, director of the Liszt Institute welcomed the guests, which was followed by welcome speeches by Kornél Almássy PhD director of the Hungarian Museum of Architecture and Monument Protection Documentation Center and Petar Prelog PhD head of the Scientific Council of the Institute of Art History in Zagreb. The opening speech was given by András Ferkai D.Sc.
After the presentation in Zagreb the exhibition was opened at the Műhelytér venue next to Rózsi Walter villa (No 10 Bajza Street) of the Hungarian Museum of Architecture and Monument Protection Documentation Centre in Budapest at 5 pm on the 5th of October 2023.
Researchers of the Hungarian team working at the Museum Department of the Hungarian Museum of Architecture and Monument Protection Documentation Center completed the panels with original art objects from the collection of the Museum. Thus the visitor can appreciate for example the original elevation drawing by Alajos Hauszmann for the Governor’s Palace in Rijeka, the designs by Ernő Foerk and Gyula Sándy for the Post and Telegraph Office in Zagreb and the design for the Tüköry country-house in Diósszentpál, two drawings by Hugó Gregersen which were exhibited at the 1930 architectural exhibition in Zagreb, József Körner’s entry for the 1930 competition for the Jewish Hospital in Zagreb, portraits of Alajos Hauszmann, István Möller, Ernő Foerk, Gyula Sándy and other archival documents.
Dr Kornél Almássy director of the Hungarian Museum of Architecture and Monument Protection Documentation Center welcomed the guests of the opening. The opening speech was given by dr. Tamara Bjažić Klarin, the head of the Croation research team. Among others she mentioned that during the interwar period Croatian and Hungarian architects mainly focused on what was going on the Western European architectural scene. They almost exclusively met at international conferences organized in Western Europe. She highlighted, that interestingly enough this attitude is valid for later researchers of the same period in both countries. Therefore she regards the present joint research conducted in close cooperation between Croatian and Hungarian architectural historians outstanding and worth to be continued in the future.
The exhibition is open until the 29th of October.
