Rozsnyai József - Alpár Ignác

Ignác Alpár was one of the most prolific Hungarian architects of the age of dualism, an excellent representative of historicizing architecture. The famous master carpenter from Pest, Mátyás Schökl, matured into a highly qualified architect during his studies in Berlin, who built his design office in Budapest from the beginning of the 1880s. At the head of this workshop of talented architects, he was able to successfully carry out the most important commissions of the time. Thanks to his wide-ranging network of contacts, he received requests one after another, especially for residential buildings, schools, churches and county houses. Commissions came from all areas of the Kingdom of Hungary, but a particularly large number of his works were realized in Transylvania. He gained a wide reputation as the designer of the historic building complex of the Millennium National Exhibition, then at the turn of the century he became a specialist in financial buildings by winning tenders from the Stock Exchange Palace and the Austro-Hungarian Bank. After their completion, the largest bank buildings in the capital and the headquarters of an insurance company, the Anker House, were realized according to his ideas until the 1910s. Alpár assumed a leading role in several professional societies and was able to use his expertise in the evaluation of many planning applications. The importance of his work is also underlined by the fact that his career has been presented to the reading public in several excellent monographs and numerous specialist studies.