Restoration of The Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest (Hungary)
Restoration of The Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest (Hungary) by the Museum of Fine Arts, the architect István Mányi and the construction company Magyar Építő Zrt (Europa Nostra Award 2020)
This intervention has been considered an excellent example of recovery of the splendour of an early 20th-century museum. It is the culmination of a carefully-thought-out long-term effort to reinstate the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, a major European institution, and is designed following a thoughtful philosophical basis. Modern interventions have been skillfully integrated and are suited to the additional needs of the museum. The building of the Museum of Fine Arts is located in Hősök tere (Heroes’ Square) in Budapest, an area of great importance in Hungarian history. Built between 1900 and 1906, the museum was designed by the architects Albert Schickedanz and Fülöp Herzog. By the mid-20th century, numerous unsuitable interventions had been carried out on the museum’s layout, the direct consequence of changing attitudes and trends in heritage and architectural appreciation, leading in turn to a number of long-term conservation issues. The Museum of Fine Arts is one of the most prominent in Europe with extensive collections including a number of masterpieces. The building is a rare example of eclectic architecture, and is not just a museum but also a parade of architectural history featuring major styles. The building, similar in type to 19th-century European museums, includes a sizeable arcaded yard, a Renaissance hall with Ionic and Doric chambers on either side, a Romanesque hall, a Baroque hall and the Michelangelo room, all designed to evoke various architectural styles and vibrantly decorated with colourful tiles and murals. It was intended as a didactic feature, as in Hungary these styles were not present or had been lost. It therefore provides an excellent representation of notable museum trends in the 19th century and early 20th century, when collections of copies of mediaeval and Renaissance masterpieces were frequently set up.
Brief analysis of the case:
The work carried out in the museum's rooms focused on cleaning, consolidating and conserving the interior spaces with their decorations in the style of the early 20th century. Careful restoration work has made it possible to faithfully recover the interior decorations that had been altered by a series of previous interventions. This intervention has made it possible to recover the interiors decorated in various styles as part of the exhibition itself and has allowed visitors to the museum to have access to an architectural and decorative heritage not present locally as part of learning about the history of European architecture.