An Academy without a headquarter

The Learned Society of Hungary had been active since 1830, but had no permanent residence. In November 1830, the first meeting of the Board of Directors was held, at which József Teleki was appointed President, István Széchenyi Vice-President and Gábor Döbrentei Secretary. The Learned Society started with 6 departments - 42 full members and 24 honorary members. Among the founding members were Dániel Berzsenyi, Ferenc Kazinczy, Mihály Vörösmarty and Sándor Kisfaludy.

In 1840, the Society took the name of the Academy, and fortunately, despite the storm and stress of 19th century Hungarian history, it continued to develop uninterruptedly.

The question of the headquarters resurfaced in 1860, when the Architectural Committee decided that the time had come to announce an open tender for a new building plan. Three architects, Imre Henszlmann, Miklós Ybl and Heinrich Ferstel from Vienna, were invited to submit their designs. One might think that work would have started immediately after the building was designed and the winning tender selected. However, there were already issues at the design phase. The architects were plagued with a number of problems. In what style should the centre of Hungarian intellectual life be built? What was the Hungarian "national style", which had been the subject of lively debate?

Matters of style

Henszlmann was a clear supporter of the Gothic architecture, to the extent that he tried to persuade Ybl and Ferstel to submit their applications in the Gothic Revival architecture. He did this despite knowing that the committee members, including President Emil Dessewffy and Baron József Eötvös, Minister of Religion and Education and President of the Academy, were not keen on the Gothic architecture. But Ybl, despite his promise, submitted a Renaissance Revival design instead, since he had always been averse to pointed arches. The committee was displeased. Ybl withdrew his application after a day to avoid conflict. Two German architects were then asked to take over, which naturally caused a great outburst of anger.

By 1865, the matter was finally settled, and the magnificent headquarters designed by Friedrich August Stüler was completed, which still serves as the home of the citadel of Hungarian intellectual life.

Busy everyday life

The world wars also had an impact on the Academy, and after the Treaty of Trianon it was only with regular state aid from Count Kunó Klebelsberg that it survived the hard times. However, it only regained its financial stability in the late 1920s, when Count Ferenc Vigyázó bequeathed his entire fortune to the institution.

In the interwar period, the Academy was characterised by a particular duality. Its spirit and leadership stubbornly retained the antiquated conservatism of the late 19th century, particularly in its rejection of the natural sciences. Although the Academy included such world-renowned natural scientists as: Albert Szent-Györgyi, a biochemist, or Kandó Kálmán, a mechanical engineer, the resources for research in chemistry, biology, medicine or engineering were insufficient.

In the same period, the law known as the numerus clausus forced many of our scientists to study abroad and eventually emigrate.

Transformation instead of elimination

The possibility of the Academy's dissolution became tangible in 1948, when the Hungarian Working People's Party (MDP), wishing to create "the supreme governing agency of Hungarian science", set up the Hungarian Scientific Council as a governmental agency to counter the Academy. Fortunately, the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union continued to consider the Hungarian Academy of Sciences as its partner organisation, and the resolution of the issue became a compromise that eventually integrated the radically transformed Academy into the new political and institutional system.

In the late 1980s, a new reform process was introduced at the Academy. In 1989, the General Assembly rehabilitated the academics who had been unfairly expelled in 1949. A substantial change in the organisation of the Academy was brought about by the "Aggregate of Academy Law XL of 1994" which defined the Academy as a "public institution based on the principle of self-government and operating as a legal entity" and extended the membership of the public institution to include not only academics but also holders of academic degrees.

In the Act no. LXVIII of 2019, its institutes were separated from the Academy and placed directly under the Ministry, first as the Eötvös Loránd Research Network and from 2023 as the HUN-REN Hungarian Research Network.
Unfortunately, nowadays due to reconstruction work we can see little of the Academy building, which will be ready for 2025, the 200th anniversary of the Academy's foundation, but you can find out more about the renovation process on the Academy's website.

MTA-headquarter in Pécs

In the 1960s, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences started to establish a national network of regional committees in order to increase the efficiency and regional weight of science. In 1969, the Presidium of the MTA established the Pécs Academic Committee as the second one. The headquarters of the institution was also designated: it became the Vasváry-mansion, built in 1884.

The Vasváry family

In the second half of the 19th century, the wealthier citizens of Pécs built stone houses and summer houses on the Mecsek hillside in place of their press houses. Most of these were wood cottages built in the so-called Alpine style. The Vasváry villa was built by György Vasváry, one of the richest merchants of Pécs.
But the story of the Traiber family of ironmongers does not start in Pécs — for that was their original name — they settled in Pécs from Bonyhád.

A little back in time, János Traiber married Margaret Kühnel, the daughter of a wealthy burgher. In the 1810s, the head of the family moved to Pécs with his daughters (Borbála, Katalin, Antónia, Jusztina) and one of his sons, Lipót. Here the daughters were married to wealthy merchants and entrepreneurs, but the remaining sons continued the business in the Bonyhád as ironmongers . János Traiber opened his first ironmonger's shop in Pécs in 1814, at 539 Főutca (today Király street), in the so-called "Hattyú house".

In a certificate dated 29 November 1882, Franz Joseph I granted permission to György Traiber, ironmonger, and his legal successors to change their name to Vasváry, while retaining their Hungarian nobility.

The Vasváry-mansion

György Vasváry bought this beautiful plot of land in Kis-Szkoko in 1878. In 1884 the three-storey mansion was already existing.

The building differs not only in size, but also in architectural style. The architect broke with tradition and imagined the holiday home in the style of the Italian Renaissance instead of the Alpine style. The building's richly decorated pyrogranite ceramics were of course made in the Zsolnay Porcelain Factory in Pécs. In a short time, György Vasváry amassed a significant collection of furnishings in the summer house. The collection reflected the artistic taste and taste of the middle classes of the time.

Unfortunately, György Vasváry was not only a good businessman, but he also indulged in two of his main passions: art collecting and viticulture. Neither of these was a cheap pastime, and the family was bankrupt by the end of the century. After his death in 1905, the family members were forced to sell off their collection. However, the building remained in the family until deprivatisation in 1952.
Later, the abandoned villa fell into rapid decay. It was saved by the Pécs Academic Committee in 1969. In 1970, the building was restored, and in the late 1990s a major extension was carried out. During the renovation, attention was also paid to restoring the rich Zsolnay artwork inside and outside the building as far as possible.

TÉ

translated by László Gönczi

Sources.:

https://hetedhethatar.hu/hethatar/?p=14967 

History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences