Hungary is so modern in aesthetic expression and so jealous of its national traditions. The pavilion is the most striking in the International exhibition: austere in its exterior, beautiful and bizarre inside, this building of noble proportions and harmonious coloring ... is reminiscent of India and Persia ... and inspired by antique Hungarian motifs. (Melani, 289)
Named “King’s Attila Tent-Palace,” the Hungarian Pavilion was unanimously considered the “Pearl of the Exposition” and praised for its ability to evoke a sense of motion in a perfectly geometric structure. The designers’ aim was to give visual expression to the power of the Hungarian military tradition, underscore its relevance to the present, and celebrate the strong and determinate nature of the Hungarian nation and its people. Made of wood, the Pavilion of Hungary combined the Romantic vision of the Tent-Palace of ancient king Attila with the Modernist inspiration of its stern cubic blocks. Harmoniously fused in the pavilion, Romantic echoes and Modernist traits are the defining elements of Hungarian functionalism. The building is a mirror of the lively social and cultural situation of the Hungarian nation, and particularly Budapest, during the first decade of the twentieth century.
The Pavilion of Hungary was located on the left bank of the river Po, next to the Main entrance on Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and the
Orto Botanico (botanical gardens). It was designed by Hungarian architects
Emil Tőry,
Móric (Maurice) Pogány, and
Dénes Györgyi. An eclectic building, combining Art Nouveau elements with the features of National Romanticism, it covered 6000 square meters, and was considered "the pearl of the exposition."
Le Eposizioni di Roma e di Torino nel 1911 descritte ed illustrate (volume 4, January 1911, 31) described the building under construction as "una costruzione eminentemente caratteristica, con decorazioni cromatiche in maiolica" (a remarkably characteristic building with colorful maiolica decorations").
The
Mostra Forestale Ungherese was located next to the Pavilion.
Interpretive Essays
In 1911, Hungary was still part of the Dual Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (he gained freedom in 1918). Like Italy, Hungary was a belated, yet active, participant in the process of industrialization that had already marked the more advanced European countries. This was the age of the socio-political and economic growth of the bourgeois class in Hungary, a class that was striving to wrestle free from Austrian investments and financial control.
Raspi, Eleonora