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Parliament
History
"The motherland does not have a house"
- thus wrote Mihály Vörösmarty,
one of the greatest poets of Hungary.
Through the hundreds of years of the history
of the country the diet didn't have a regular
house.
But there was no need for it - over the past
thousand years the Hungarian diet has held its
sessions from Sopron to Szabolcs, from Besztercebánya
to Szeged, from Nagyszombat to Rákos
field, and since the l8th century primarily
in Pozsony, today known as Bratislava.
As a counterweight to the royal palace rising
high on Buda Hill, the Pest side of the Danube
was chosen to symbolize that Hungary's destiny
lay with popular democracy and not with royal
whim.
The competition announced in 1882 was won by
Imre Steindl, a professor at the Technical University.
Like others of his generation he thought that
problems in construction could be most easily
solved by combining old style elements with
modern technique in a relatively free manner.
The style of the exterior recalls Gothic Revival,
which developed in England in the 1830's.
A foremost example of this style is the Parliament
in London.
Building
On 12 October 1885 ground was broken on the
quay at Tömo square in the Lipót
district.
With an average of 1000 workers laboring at
any one time, the building took 17 years to
complete.
It was the greatest investment of the time and
the most expensive building which has ever been
built in Hungary (from this sum of money a smaller
town could have been built for about 30 000
people).
The building is 268 m long, 123 m wide across
the center, has a dome 96 m high and covers
18,000 square meters of surface area and 473,000
cubic meters of space.
The building stands on a 2-5 m thick gigantic
concrete foundation.
90 statues and the coats-of-arms of various
cities and counties adorn the exterior while
on the inner walls can be found 152 statues
and motives of national fauna.
Nearly 40 kg of 22-23 karat gold was used for
decorations.
The building has 27 gates, 29 interior staircases
and 13 personal and service elevators.
Around 50 five story apartment buildings could
fit into the Parliament.
The interior of the building has been symmetrically
arranged, because the Hungarian parliament was
originally composed of two houses: the rooms
were built around the assembly halls of the
Upper and Lower Houses - now the Congress Hall
and the Assembly Hall - with the Delegation
Hall in the center.
The Dome Hall
Reaching the top of the stairs, the visitor
enters the Dome Hall whose 16 corners amplify
the sensation of space.
It is true that the inside ceiling is much lower
than the outside cupola, but this ingenious
structure gives the feeling that this 27 m high
round room is imposingly high.
This splendid hall is the structural and spiritual
heart of the building, and on occasion hosted
the combined sessions of both houses of Parliament.
Rooms Around the
Dome Hall
Fascinating rooms surround the Dome Hall from
the Danube side.
Opposite the main staircase is Hunter Nall,
the great dining hall of Parliament, decorated
on the riverside by a colonnaded terrace.
In the foreground the monks directing the fishing
net represent a thousand year old tradition
of Hungarian history - the silent workers underpinning
civilization's achievements.
The Deputy Council
Chamber and the Lounge the Deputies
As the visitor arrives from the main stairs
and stops in the middle of the Dome Hall, under
the rose candelabra, she will have a magnificent
view of the functional structure of the building.
Since December 1944 the Hungarian legislature
has been mono cameral.
As there is only legislative body, the former
session room of the Upper House is now used
for holding international conferences.
Turning first to the southern side, the visitor
comes upon the Deputy Council Chamber, where
the Hungarian legislature sits today.
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