{"id":3722,"date":"2011-05-10T11:32:54","date_gmt":"2011-05-10T09:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meonline.hu\/?p=3722"},"modified":"2012-04-27T12:32:05","modified_gmt":"2012-04-27T10:32:05","slug":"kolostor-a-hataron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meonline.hu\/en\/archivum\/kolostor-a-hataron\/","title":{"rendered":"A Monastery on the Frontier"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Sopronb\u00e1nfalva, the Reconstruction of the Monastery<\/strong><\/p>\n

Architect: \u00c9va Magyari, B\u00e9la Paz\u00e1r
\nText: Mikl\u00f3s Sulyok
\nPhotos: D\u00e1niel Zafr – GlobalPress, Gy\u00f6rgy Szeg\u0151, MNDP \u00c9p\u00edt\u0151m\u0171v\u00e9szeti Kft.<\/p>\n

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The salvation project of this old building could not probably have been managed by more professional experts than the architects\u2019 office of B\u00e9la Paz\u00e1r and \u00c9va Magyari as they had already designed the reconstruction of highly significant historic buildings such as S\u00e1ndor Palace and the Music Academy in Budapest. However, this project is the joint work of the client and the designer, just like every successful architectural work, with the client now being G\u00e1bor Kov\u00e1cs, the famous businessman and art collector, the initiator of KOGART Foundation. The Province of the Hungarian Discalced Carmelites is said to have offered this real estate of significant value as a protected historic monument for sale to him and he has actually purchased it with a good head for business. The goal is a generous and noble one: the building is to house now a centre for meditation and education. Operating in Western Europe for over decades now, this kind of institution of spiritual relaxation has been more and more popular in Hungary recently. The Catholic church and especially the minor monastic orders, such as the Carmelites, are unable to maintain and operate every historic real estate of their own in line with their original functions, and thus a niche opens for investors powerful both materially and spiritually as this kind of investment is not only a financial, but also a spiritual one.
\nThe very first building here was built in the late-15th century but the actual Paulite monastery dates from the 17th century. At the end of the 19th century it was taken over by Carmelite nuns and functioned as a psychiatry and social home from 1950 on till the change of the political system respectfully serving the sick and enduring repeated architectural indignities.
\nArchitects set to work with a concept clear on the whole and in details. The work now realized speaks of their unambiguous and calm approach to the house. There is no trace of architectural uncertainty: the whole structure is filtered through by integrity and systematicness. Their intervention radiates self-confident calmness in the best sense of the word. They knew that this site is a sacred one. It had been in possession of a community the members of which devoted their lives to God. The building had been erected to function as the venue of their communal life and it had been used in this spirit. The task was to reconstruct the whole as it had been but within the limits of common sense. As for the details: to let time breathe in its stones. This is the architectural situation in which even the tiniest details are significant as every intervention and gesture could obliterate the work of centuries without any trace, but what is even more important: they could preserve them for centuries to come. Designers seem to have deep affection for the character of the house chiselled by time. Rooms were created from the former cells of the monks so that the bathrooms had practically been sunk into the width of the walls and thus there was no need to cut into the existing sections of the vaulting. Made of limestone from Solnhofen, the floor covering of the ambulatory has been preserved: actually it is the most beautiful version with manually chipped borders which frequently appears in Hungarian ecclesiastic architecture (e.g. in the ambulatory of the Benedictine arch-abbey in Pannonhalma). When complementing the Baroque staircase block stone was carefully selected for the steps and elsewhere the stones of the thresholds were also treated in a similar way. It seems to be an insignificant but characteristic triviality that the chasuble wardrobe has been preserved: through this nuns living in the enclosure gave the priests serving in the church their cleaned and ironed vestments. A large number of such tiny details make it possible for the aura of the house to flow unhindered once again.
\nIs there anything less appreciated by contemporary culture, the world of cell phones and community sites than the undisturbed solitude of being on our own? Mass culture enforces upon us a type of human being in constant \u2013 online \u2013 contact with endlessly flowing floods of information that never leave us alone. So what exactly happened in Sopronb\u00e1nfalva? The client and the architects co-operating with him saved the environment where solitude may evolve. It does not matter that it would probably serve the relaxation of prospering companies of super-luxurious standards. The sacred character of the location \u2013 the prayers and emanation of the souls once living here \u2013 is palpable in the interiors. B\u00e9la Paz\u00e1r and \u00c9va Magyari have done the most an architect could do: letting this spiritual factor make its influence felt.
\nSolitude these days has been pushed back into the sphere of religious spiritual practices. Spiritual trainings are organized by companies and for purposes of psychotherapy. Thus it is now in possession of the sick and the \u00e9lite. The monastery today bears the name \u201ea centre of education and meditation\u201d. I wish that the spirit of the locality should start speaking in the soul of every human being coming here for a rest.<\/p>\n

Design: MNDP \u00c9p\u00edt\u0151m\u0171v\u00e9szeti Kft.
\nArchitects: \u00c9va Magyari, B\u00e9la Paz\u00e1r, Gy\u00f6rgy Poly\u00e1k, Tibor Bodn\u00e1r, Gerg\u0151 Demj\u00e9n \u2013 MNDP Kft.
\nStructure: Zolt\u00e1n Bencze, Kriszti\u00e1n Kecsk\u00e9s, Attila Borb\u00e9ly \u2013 C\u00c9H Zrt.
\nInstallations: Istv\u00e1n Szab\u00f3, Bal\u00e1zs Varga \u2013 Kov\u00e1cs P\u00e1l \u00e9s T\u00e1rsa Kft.
\nElectrical engineering: G\u00e1bor Bir\u00f3 \u2013 B\u00edr\u00f3Bau Bt.
\nMoisture protection: S\u00e1ndor Horv\u00e1th, Csaba Cz\u00e9geni \u2013 Pataky \u00e9s Horv\u00e1th \u00c9p\u00edt\u00e9sziroda Kft.
\nPublic utilities, roads: \u00c9va K\u00e1lm\u00e1n, P\u00e9ter Horv\u00e1th \u2013 HK\u00c9 M\u00e9rn\u00f6ki Iroda
\nKitchen technology: P\u00e1l Tam\u00e1s Acz\u00e9l \u2013 Gastroplan kft.
\nArt historians: Ferenc D\u00e1vid, Tam\u00e1s Bal\u00e1zsik
\nClient: NISTEMA Kft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t