The 20th century was not a century of patrons in the history of Hungarian works of art and monuments, but this era is now over. The coming into being of the sponsorship cooperation relating to the comprehensive refurbishment of the Gödöllő Royal Palace is a sure sign of the fact that – similar to the 19th century – there are again talented Hungarians and large Hungarian corporations which are able to place their wealth in the service of national causes, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Monday in Gödöllő.
At the event held on the occasion of the ceremonial signing of the sponsorship cooperation agreement, he thanked Chairman-Chief Executive of OTP Bank Sándor Csányi who – as he said – agreed to set an example with a generous donation of HUF 20 billion offered for the refurbishment of the palace. He added that the government had joined this initiative, and in consequence, the project would receive a capital injection of HF 40 billion in total.
The Prime Minister also said thank you to those who have taken care of the maintenance, operation and development of the Grassalkovich Palace to date. He indicated that if they had to start the work from scratch, then not even HUF 40 billion would be enough because those who had recently taken responsibility for the functioning of the palace had not only performed their job responsibilities, but had – at times in heroic circumstances – made way for opening a new chapter now, Mr Orbán added.
The Prime Minister stressed that they looked back upon the 19th century with envy because while there had been difficulties back then, too, there had always been Hungarians who had been strong and well-off enough to donate towards causes serving the nation. By contrast, amidst the great shocks of the 20th century, Hungary lost the ability to generate the kinds of private donors who would offer to save major national monuments on their own or perhaps in cooperation with the state, he said.
At the same time, when these castles and palaces were in state hands, all they managed was to install Soviet soldiers in them, he observed.
The Prime Minister highlighted that the buildings of old times reminded us that the Hungarian was a creative nation, and that the active generations of the day could only be worthy of their history if they preserved the past.
Mr Orbán also spoke about the fact that it was depressing and painful to see our old buildings in a dilapidated state. “We have the feeling that we are not worthy of the heritage of our ancestors,” we are worse, weaker, less significant and smaller than they were. Therefore, the refurbishment of historical monuments in the past 15 years serves not only to express the intention of the Hungarian state, but “also satisfies a deeply embedded national instinct because there is no generation that would want to be any lesser than those who went before them.”
Listing the historical monuments that have been recently refurbished, he mentioned the Buda Castle Palace Quarter, the Visegrád Citadella, while among church buildings he made specific mention of the Győr Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption of our Lady, the Eger Basilica and Archiepiscopal Palace, the Gödöllő Norbertine Abbey, the Tihany Benedictine Abbey, the Esztergom Basilica, the buildings of the Veszprém Archdiocese, the Budapest Kálvin tér Reformed Church, the Kolozsvár [Cluj-Napoca] Saint Michael’s Church and the Szabadka [Subotica] Synagogue. Further refurbishment projects include the Music Academy and the Opera, he listed.
From among programmes implemented in territories beyond the borders, he highlighted the Folk Architecture Programme which is one of the most successful grant programmes. Other renovated monuments include the Bonchida [Bontida] Bánffy Castle, the Keresd [Cris] Bethlen Castle and the Sepsikőröspatak [Valea Crisului] Kálnoky Castle, he observed.
He added: we should also be grateful to local governments which have contributed – to the debit of their own resources and in cooperation with local contractors – HUF 66 billion to the preservation of our built heritage.
He spoke in words of praise about the castle legislation initiated by Minister for Construction and Transport János Lázár, thanks to which there is HUF 82 billion more for the conservation of historical monuments. He highlighted that the Ministry for Construction and Transport had compiled the government’s first state project framework programme for 35 years which included the refurbishment of 48 castles and mansion-type buildings to a total value of HUF 162 billion.
The Prime Minister also spoke about the fact that the previous year castles had received 2.5 million visitors, generating a total revenue of HUF 2.5 billion. This clearly shows that if these historical buildings are operated well, then they are not only a source of expenditure, but also a source of revenue, he underlined.
He observed that the refurbishment of the Gödöllő Royal Palace would extend not only to the historical building, but equally to the attached park, meaning that in some point in the future, there will be a moment when we will be able to see the palace and the garden the way Queen Sissi may have seen it in 1867.
Mr Orbán recalled the example of Bavarian King Ludwig who was much attacked in his own time due to the vast amounts of money he had spent on his castles, but history had proved these to be Germany’s most successful projects.
Regarding the refurbishment of the Gödöllő Palace, he said while there are more pressing day-to-day expenditures, we must not be scared of spending HUF 40 billion on a project like this. If we do it well, these forints will not be some luxury, a mere expenditure or a waste of money, but – beyond the preservation of our heritage – they will prove to be reasonable and justified investments also from a business point of view, he stressed.
He underlined Gödöllő’s excellent features in this regard: the town is just half an hour from Budapest, the environment is beautiful, the built heritage is rich, and the town is also home to one of the country’s best universities, the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences which is in the world’s top 150 in the field of life sciences.
Mr Orbán observed that the ascension of the Gödöllő University in the international rankings was proof of the strategic success of the reform of universities. There is a lucky coincidence in that the university’s board of trustees, too, is led by Sándor Csányi, the Prime Minister indicated.
He added that they had tried to make the best of Gödöllő’s features. “And we have, though the truth is that here using the first person singular is not justified because, in actual fact, we have János Lázár to thank for all this,” the Prime Minister said, praising the Minister for Construction and Transport.
He also recalled that in the refurbishment project, they would not be required to start from scratch as some wings of the palace had already been renewed for the purposes of the 2011 Hungarian EU presidency. At the time, the only goal was to present ourselves in Europe in a worthy manner. Today, our ambition is much greater than that, we also want to occupy the place that we deserve, he pointed out.
The incumbent Hungarian government’s trade mark is that it only supports the Brussels aspirations as long as they do not go against Hungarian sovereignty and Hungary’s aspirations, he laid down.
Mr Orbán further recalled that since 2011 not only had Hungary’s place in the rankings of European peoples changed, but Europe itself had changed much. In 2011, we took over an optimistic European Union presidency about to or intending to re-embark on a course of growth after the financial crisis, there was peace on the continent, and there were reputable leaders at the head of the largest European nations, he pointed out.
Today, instead of peace there is war, while instead of growth there is economic stagnation; today, the situation is much worse in European politics than it was in 2011, he indicated, adding that the Hungarians have a vested interest in preserving peace and in that rather than the Hungarian people’s money being sent to Ukraine, we should spend it on the Hungarian people.
He took the view that it was, however, a positive sign that the country was again able to give the nation major patrons. We have both private individual patrons and large national corporations which – in addition to making profits – feel it their duty to help the community in which they create this business wealth, and are therefore willing – beyond paying their taxes – to give something extra back to the community for purposes which are important for the community.
Praising the nine-year refurbishment programme, he observed that in many instances, these projects represented not only financial strength, but also spiritual confirmation as Gödöllő was hard to imagine without the Grassalkovich Palace. “I sincerely hope that we will have followers on this path, and that the Grassalkovich Palace will not remain the only major public project and built heritage conservation programme implemented with patronage,” Mr Orbán said.
