First Meeting of Cttee Opened for Buda Castle Revamp

Budapest (MTI) – Prime Minister Viktor Orban opened on Friday the founding meeting of the National Hauszmann Committee dedicated to a comprehensive refurbishment of Buda Castle.

After the meeting held in Parliament, state secretary at the prime minister’s office Laszlo L Simon said that Orban had defined the “theoretical and spiritual framework” that justifies spending signifant amounts in the next decades on “one of the strongest symbols of Hungary’s constructed national heritage”.

The meeting was attended by architects, art historians, historians, lawyers and economists who had been actively involved in tasks connected to the castle district, L. Simon said. The body also includes cabinet minister Janos Lazar, ruling Fidesz lawmaker Antal Rogan and district mayor Tamas Gabor Nagy, he added.

L. Simon said there was a debate over future functions of the castle district and the majority of participants said the district should carry mostly cultural functions. He added, however, that tasks connected to government and state representation should not be excluded, either, considering that it historically fulfilled such functions. Orban said on the subject that continued developments over three hundred years “should not be overshadowed by the past sixty or seventy years,” L. Simon added.

Daily Magyar Hirlap on Friday cited L. Simon saying in an interview that after some of the current institutions move out of the castle, several areas will be made accessible to the public that are currently closed to visitors.

He said the government already allocated 1.5 billion forints in next year’s budget for preparations of the revamp. He added, however, that this may be increased because more than 2 billion forints would be necessary for archeological and art history research and surveys.

Photo: Daily News Hungary

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters