Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has praised the life and work of architect Imre Makovecz who captured the Hungarian spirit.
During the opening of the Budapest centre and archive named after the Kossuth and Ybl Miklós Award winning architect, the prime minister said his legacy lives on and awaits to be continued in the Carpathian Basin.
“Imre Makovecz lived and worked for rescuing the Hungarian spirit, this is what he expressed with his buildings, plans and writings, and this is what he taught us, too: self-awareness and national awareness, the science of connecting together Hungarian communities detached from one another, the science of connecting together the sky and the Earth," the prime minister said.
He said that Imre Makovecz’s life work is a summary of the spirituality which he brought up from the deepest layers of Hungarian national culture and presented to us in the purest form. "We only have a single task: to build, to look after and to research this exceptional heritage," Orbán said. He added that the opening of the centre can therefore be summed up in a single brief sentence today, "We shall carry on. This is more than just a museum, this is more than just an archive," he said.
PM Orbán pointed out that we are living in a country today which is proud of its national values and national authors and creative artists; we had to wait for this a long time.
The prime minister pointed out that there are now institutions which are dedicated to preserving Hungary's legacy, thanks to Imre Makovecz.
"We have an Academy of Arts functioning as a public body and a Collection of Hungarian Values. These institutions ensure that none of the tangible and spiritual heritage of the greatest creators of the Hungarian nation should be lost," the prime minister stressed.