Monument Preservation in Central Europe

Recent decades have seen both what has been referred to as an "inflation of historical monuments" and an acceleration of the process of "monumentification" affecting buildings of relatively recent date. In order to gain a better understanding of this, Kovacs looked at the experience in countries of Central Europe (Romania, Hungary, Slovenia, the Czech Lands, Slovakia), discovering a number of similarities as well as differences in detail. More important, however, was the discovery of the much wider importance of this phenomenon as a whole, which is particularly visible in this part of Europe, where "European" theory and practice of monument preservation are combined with progressivist demolitionism and traditional "natural" attitudes towards the built environment. Kovacs found that monument preservation has not only become a major occupation within building activity seen as a matter of anthropology, but also seems to be the determining feature of the contemporary cultural attitude. The scale of preservation activity has long since reached the level of urban design as an essential criterion for matters of future development, making it necessary to extend the conclusions of theoretical research down to broader generalities of the building domain. Kovacs then looked at the specific features of the countries concerned, including the survival of traditional building techniques in Romania, and the wide variety of preservationist policies in use.

The Forgotten Archduke: The Funeral Monument for Ernest of Austria in Brussels

Archduke Ernest of Austria (1553–1595), second son of Emperor Maximilian II and younger brother of Emperor Rudolf II, was in his youth a possible candidate for the thrones of the Empire or the Spanish Kingdom. Instead, he became Governor-General of the Netherlands in 1593 and relocated to Brussels in 1594 where he was welcomed with lavish festivities as the bearer of hope and prosperity. Unfortunately, Ernest died only thirteen months later without having achieved any political success. His brother and successor Albert of Austria commissioned the funeral monument for Ernest in 1600 after it was settled that he would be buried in Brussels and not Vienna. Focusing on this monument, which draws stylistically from various dynasty-related models, it will be shown that Albert intended to use this monument – and thus his brother’s memoria – to make the Brussels Cathedral the primary location of Habsburg dynastic memory in the Low Countries.

L. v. Beethoven's Monument zu Bonn

Signatur des Originals: S 36/G00377

George Frederick Handel : Handel's Monument in Westminster Abbey

Signatur des Originals: S 36/G01068

Monument élevé à L. van Beethoven à Bonn

Signatur des Originals: S 36/G02771

Monument élevé à L. van Beethoven à Bonn

Signatur des Originals: S 36/G02772

Monument élevé à W. A. Mozart à Salzbourg.

Signatur des Originals: S 36/G03418

Monument Erigè al'Ermitage á la Mèmoire de Gretry.

Signatur des Originals: S 36/G03862

I.F. Card. Stuppanio prov. Aemiliae... Veterum. monument. apud. Vrbinat.... haec bene. auspicato. opere. nuper ad classem. ravennat. eruta monachi. classenses... [Texto impreso]

Tít. en anteport. : "Vetera Monumenta ad Classem Rauennatem nuper eruta"

Subscription for John Wadsworth Monument, 1801 October 10

Handwritten document acknowledging the receipt of money by Caleb Gannett from a subscription drive to erect a monument for Harvard tutor John Wadsworth who died in 1777 and was buried in the Cambridge burying ground. The document is signed by fourteen individuals and lists their contributions.