MAKE ITS OWN CONTRIBUTION

STONE CULTURE

Louis Dutrieux

7/2/20244 min read

Last May, on our way to Georgia, we stopped off in Budapest for the European Festival of Stonecutters and Sculptors. While we were there, we reminisced about our first year on the road, during which we cut jamb-bases¹ at the Sóskút quarry (read the article here 👈). It was with great pleasure and a little nostalgia that we met up with some of our Hungarian colleagues at the festival. One of them told us that the stones had been laid on one of the buildings on Buda Mountain. Taking advantage of our free time, we went in search of these famous stones.

We had heard about the intense activity in this part of Budapest, but it wasn't until we got there that we really appreciated the scale of the work in progress. From the left bank of the Danube, overlooking the entire city, an incessant ballet of dozens of cranes was moving along the top of the hill. After climbing a few hundred steps, we found ourselves in the middle of a district home to a number of historic buildings emblematic of Hungary, such as Buda Castle and the Riding Hall. Still on the higher ground, we pass this area, which bears witness to a royal past, and continue on our way. We reach streets with old, colourful facades, a mix of government offices and housing. Here we are at the Fisherman's Bastion, famous for its medieval fortifications and its breathtaking views of Parliament.

Like many visitors, this view almost distracted us from what was happening behind us, at Szentháromság Square, one of the most important places in the life of the city in days gone by. You only have to take one look at the square to realise this. On one side is the Baroque-style Old Town Hall, the 13th-century Church of Our Lady of Buda and, on the other, an early 20th-century neo-Gothic town house. The latter looks familiar. Images of technical plans from last year suddenly spring to mind. It was on this building, the future Ministry of Finance, that we discovered our stones, cut and laid on the façade.

Buda Mountain

After this reunion, our curiosity led us to observe the rest of the building sites, curious to understand what was happening on the rest of the hill. In this part of the city, we counted around ten building sites in progress. These are part of the "National Hauszmann Program"² launched by the government in 2019. This programme is named after the Bavarian architect Alajos Hauszmann, not to be confused with the French Baron Haussmann, famous for his plans to transform the city of Paris in the mid-19th century. Hauszmann is equally renowned in Hungary for the buildings he designed and built in Budapest, in the neo-Renaissance style of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The aim of this national programme is to revitalise the district. Following the Second World War and the socialist period, many monuments were in need of restoration or even complete rebuilding, some having disappeared altogether. Based on the plans of the famous Hauszmann, copies of monuments such as the Dancing Hall are being built again. This programme is unprecedented. Both for the country, since Buda Mountain is the symbol of its institutions, and because it mobilises hundreds of craftsmen to produce projects that combine historic styles with modern techniques.

Building ...

This stopover in Budapest gave us the opportunity to learn more about the state of stonemasonry in Hungary. The National Hauszmann Programme is a fantastic opportunity for the profession. It revitalises craft techniques and interdisciplinary collaboration could serve as a model for other equivalent programmes. For at least another 10 years, this initiative will not just be an urban renewal operation, but an act of cultural transmission. Every stone cut, every building restored, is helping to build a lasting legacy for future generations. This opens up new prospects for the profession in Hungary and gives other foreign stonemasons, eager to discover other cultures, the opportunity to make their own contribution, as we have done.