Exploring Italian Models of Hungarian Block-Reconstruction: 1960s Eger vs. 1930s Bergamo Alta

Hungarian journal articles from the Kádár era (1956-1989) suggest a linear narrative of heritage policies after WWII. Three urban areas are presented as the epitome of paradigm changes – the Buda Castle District, the walled city of Sopron and the ‘inner-city’ of Eger. Eger has been associated with an innovation of planning in the 1960s shifting the basic unit of interventions from plot to block promoting the preservation of the perimeter while implementing block-internal redevelopment. Officially, ‘block-reconstruction’ was celebrated as a Hungarian success story reconciling conservation and urban planning. Little to no information has, however, been written about foreign references. In light of prominent Italian influences in Hungary since the 1930s, this article explores potential models looking at Gustavo Giovannoni’s theory on diradamento edilizio and its well known application case – Luigi Angelini’s Piano di Risanamento issued for Bergamo Alta in 1934, which, 33 years before Eger, had proposed block-based principles. Analysing bibliographic and archival sources the aim is to reassess the case of Eger and contextualise Hungarian trajectories in 20th century urban conservation theory and practice, and by that, offer new perspectives on the passed-down urban fabric in Hungary.