The architecture of the Balaton region manifest itself in multiple ways along the lakeshore. This exhibition covers nearly one hundred years of the region's centuries-old cultural history. The holiday resort buildings presented on the tableaus are a reflection of different eras and various social and architectural concepts. Resort colonies began to develop in the last decades of the 19th century, thanks to the railway construction on the southern shore. At that time, the distinctive architecture of the area already began to unfold, as remarkable hotels and clubhouses sprang up on the lakeshore. Following the signing of the Treaty of Trianon, due to which Hungary had lost its holiday resorts located in Transylvania, Upper Hungary and the Adriatic, the shores of Lake Balaton were given new impetus. After the First World War, the lakeshore saw a spur of interest, which brought about a rapid development of tourism and cultural life in the region. The self-organising local resort associations became actively involved in the development of the lakeshore settlements: the Balaton Management Committee was established and architects began to elaborate architectural guidelines for the region on the whole. This upswing was interrupted by the Second World War, and it was only after the Revolution of 1956 that the development of the lakeshore was resumed. The regional plan that laid down the foundations for the Balaton region’s architecture in the 1960s was drawn up with the assistance of the contemporary generation of architects. In 1965, the International Union of Architects awarded the Abercrombie Prize to the designers. One of the last completed elements of the plan – redesigned on several occasions – was the string of hotels on the Silver Coast, which not only marked the end of an era, but which also wraps up the one hundred years portrayed by the exhibition.

Each tableau of the exhibition by the Danube riverside brings to life a particular building standing even today on the shores of Lake Balaton. The front sides of the installations portray the character of the most typical buildings lining the lake, as well as their current appearance and function, with the tools of poster art by photographer Karolina Kárász. The back sides of the tableaux evoke the memories of a hundred summers through archival photographs and genre pictures of our architectural heritage – the focus of our exhibition.

Free to view:
7 June - mid-September 2023, Monday-Sunday: 6:00-24:00