The Reconstruction of the Main Building of the Archbishop’s Palace, Eger

Architect: László Földes
Text: Anna Losonczy
Photos: Róbert Nemes

The Archbishop’s Palace has stood abandoned in the Baroque-style centre of Eger for such a long time that people have almost completely forgotten about it. The main gate to the grand courtile has been opened again now to the public after more than five decades. Designers of the reconstruction project had to face first the task to strip off the inconsiderate interventions imposed upon the building recently. The main objective throughout the reconstruction was to restore the original structures as authentic as possible including doors and windows as well as the timber roofing which have essentially been preserved. During the restoration stages, however, various layers have been exposed which had been known from descriptions only and thus were supposed to have been destroyed. The most interesting historic details have been hidden by one of them, the mural gracing sala terrena upstairs with bird motifs. The ornamentation was restored in an exemplary way, but the original tiled stoves and restored furniture also contribute to the overall image evoking the flourishing period of the palace. The representative rooms opening into one another have proven to be perfectly suitable to house a museum. Rooms on the second floor overlooking the street which have preserved more frescoes and decorative details function now as an interior exhibition whilst the halls on the first floor contain a survey of ecclesiology and church art. The ornamental gardens at the widening bottleneck of the main street invites visitors whilst the yard behind the carriage way serves as a passage via the ground-floor of the museum.

Leading architect: László Földes
Architects: András Farkas, Ágnes Vértesy, Ágnes Deigner
Interior deisgn: György Frank, Balázs Tatár
Structure: Zoltán V. Nagy
Landscape architect: Ágnes Herczeg
Fellow landscape architects: Bettina Edvi, Azadeh Rahnama
HVAC: Gábor Cservenyák
Electrical engineering: Judit Balázs
Lighting: Ferenc Haász
Fire protection: István Acsai
Accessibility: Anna Kormányos