History
"The nation lacks a home." - stated Mihály Vörösmarty, an outstanding Hungarian poet, somewhat bitterly in 1846. True, the sons of Árpád governed the country and enacted laws, from wherever they happened to be at the time. For centuries, a narrow steam of society: high priests, baronets, noblemen and aristocratic citizens claimed to constitute "the nation", meeting in council and passing judgement as they went. In the Era of Enlightment, however, historical changes lifted millions from submission to disposition, giving mandate to a great number of people. And this nation needed a home, a place to build up a government they can call their own. In contrast with the royal palace, built in lofty heights above the rest of the city, the new parliament was to be built on the flat side of the Danube, on the same level with the city itself, as an expression and symbol of the newly born democracy.
Following some years of struggle and turbulence, Imre Steindl's building design won the tender of 1882. Relying on the technical innovations of that time, he combined assorted stylistic elements to create an eclectic building, which mirrors history. The exterior leans toward the English school of Gothic Revival, somewhat resembling the Palace of Westminster in London; interior design, however, includes a great number of Renaissance and Baroque elements. The groundbreaking took place in 1885, and an average of thousand people worked consecutively for thirteen years to complete the building. It was a huge project, which greatly boosted the local industrial enterprises of the time, as the principle of working primarily with Hungarian material and Hungarian craftsmen was followed all the way through. Total cost was projected to be around 18,5 million of the era's currency, korona, but it ended up at 38 million. Around 176 000 cord ground was moved, 40 million bricks were laid, more than half a million ornamental stones were carved.
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