Gyula Forster initiated the publication of the four-volume work entitled Magyarország Műemlékei (Hungary’s Historic Monuments), within the series of publications by the National Historic Monuments Commission. This series edited by him presented the commission’s operations and results of its rehabilitation and restoration projects during the period between 1905 and 1915. In the introductory essay, Forster leads the reader through the history of the creation of institutional historic preservation in Hungary and the foundations of its methodology. The first volume contains a registry of the commission’s Drawing Archives (the present-day Print and Drawing Archives) and of Hungary’s historic mural paintings, which includes the literature related to them as well as a geographical listing by county location for each. Since the formation of the Temporary Historic Monuments Commission (1872), a survey and inventory of Hungary’s historic properties had been considered one of the primary tasks of the commission. Due to this, the entirety of the second volume was a temporary register of historic properties entitled A műemlékek helyrajzi jegyzéke és irodalma (The Geographical Register and Bibliography for Historic Monuments) compiled by Péter Gerecze. While this listed 4,000 structures with citations for the technical literature about them, the author acknowledged even at the time that it was in need of rectification through on-site inspections.
Ágnes Szecskó
Forster, Gyula ed., Magyarország műemlékei, Budapest: Hornyánszky ny., 1905-1915. – 4 vols., ill; 35 cm. (Publications of the National Historic Monuments Commission)
http://hunteka.mma-mem.hu/hu/record/-/record/RECORD79218
