Urban Renewal of Historic Towns in Hungary: Results and Prospects for Future in European Context

Abstract

This study draws lessons from studying historic towns in West-Hungary, i.e. tries to sketch the basic features of development and urban policy of the last 50–60 years. The study used the traditional empirical methods of urban geography, and concluded as follows. Until the end of the first decade after 2000 we cannot speak about real urban renewal in historic county towns in Hungary; urban renewal signified mostly by monument preservation had basically cultural and architectural motivations, the social and economic factors appeared very seldom, they came to leading position first in the rehabilitation efforts of the historic Budapest in the middle of the 1980s. This renewal lead by the public sector gave place to the private sector which carried out an intensive modernisation after the political transition, however the social processes are less definite. We are witnessing gentrification tendencies in the larger towns, and functional and social decline, the latter being particularly conspicuous in reconstruction areas, which, beside the further intensification of the existing conflicts of townscape, reflects a subsequent failure of this type of intervention of the socialist era complementing the monument protection of heritage conservation areas.