The perfect parliament
QUESTION Was the design of the Hungarian parliament building inspired by the Palace of Westminster?
There is no doubt hungary’s neo-Gothic parliament was influenced by Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin’s Palace of Westminster.
Yet architect Imre Steindl was mainly inspired by his mentor, Friedrich von Schmidt, the Austrian doyen of Gothic revival architecture, under whom he studied the subject in Vienna.
Schmidt is best known for his 15year restoration of Cologne cathedral and remarkable buildings in Vienna such as the city hall and the Maria vom Siege church, many elements of which can be seen in the hungarian parliament building.
Just after turning 30, Steindl became professor of medieval architecture at Budapest’s University of Technology. In 1882, a design competition was held to find the architect of the parliamentary building, and Steindl emerged as one of four winners from 19 contestants.
There was dissent over which of the four designs would be selected. eventually, the planning committee endorsed Steindl’s rationale: ‘Gothic is not a national style, but since we have no national style, [the committee] agrees to select this style of not German, but French, origin, to represent the most majestic ideals of freedom and power.’
The driving force behind the decision was former prime minister Count Gyula Andrassy. he’d long had an admiration for Britain’s political culture, noting the similarities between the Magna Carta and hungary’s Golden Bull of 1222.
As a colleague wrote: ‘The London memories of our former prime minister . . . decided the issue [of the design competition] so that in a similar fashion to the Parliament on the Thames, the hungarian parliament should be built in Gothic style on the bank of the Danube.’
Like the Palace of Westminster, the hungarian building has a central lobby leading to two legislative chambers, while the principal elevations face the river for maximum visual impact.
however, the Budapest building is almost perfectly symmetrical and topped by a great dome.
The Palace of Westminster has a gothic exterior and interior, while the interior of hungary’s Parliament building has more of a renaissance and Baroque influence.
The hungarian parliament is massive with 691 rooms, ten courtyards and 12.5 miles of stairs covering 33 acres, compared to Westminster’s eight-acre footprint.
Steindl died in 1902, two years before the building was completed.
Matthew Scott, Salisbury, Wilts.
QUESTION Was one of the earliest pieces of writing a customer complaint?
The complaint is a clay tablet sent to ancient Ur and written in 1750 BC. It was acquired by the British Museum in 1953.
The tablet describes the grievance of a customer called Nanni after the wrong grade of copper had been delivered by the merchant ea-Nasir and the poor treatment of Nanni’s servant.
It begins: ‘Tell ea-nasir: Nanni sends the following message: When you came, you said to me as follows: “I will give GimilSin (when he comes) fine quality copper ingots.” You left then but you did not do what you promised me.
‘You put ingots which were not good before my messenger (Sit-Sin) and said: “If you want to take them, take them; if you do not want to take them, go away!”
‘What do you take me for that you treat somebody like me with such contempt?’
however, it is not the oldest surviving piece of writing in the world.
The Kish tablet in early cuneiform was found in Iraq at the site of the ancient Sumerian city of Kish and has been dated to 3,500 BC. It has not been possible to translate it.
Kristina Bowen, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
QUESTION On April 18, 1930, the BBC proclaimed: ‘There is no news.’ Was there any?
FAMOUSLY, after the BBC’s news announcer stated there was nothing to report in the 8.45pm bulletin, piano music was played for the rest of the 15-minute segment.
It may have been a quiet day in Britain, but elsewhere in the world it was a different story.
It was the date of a national disaster in romania. An easter service was being held in Costesti, Wallachia. Because the wooden church was small, the adults had gathered outside while the choir and children were inside.
A fire broke out after a candle set a wreath alight. Within minutes the church was ablaze and filled with smoke, with 130 people trapped. The roof collapsed, crushing many.
A survivor said: ‘Parents rushed to the door trying to get in to save their children. They were pushing to enter, children were struggling to get out and failed, because of their parents who blocked their exit.
‘That scrimmage kept them captive, prey to the flames. They all died, 116 children, all the youth of the village.’
April 1930 was a turbulent time in India. Mahatma Ghandi was encouraging his supporters into peaceful civil disobedience against the British authorities.
In Bengal, Surya Sen was leading a more violent movement. A former teacher known as Master Da from Chittagong (now Bangladesh), he was the leader of the Bengal Freedom Movement.
he planned to capture two armouries in Chittagong and destroy the telegraph and telephone office. On April 18, 1930, 64 revolutionaries captured the police and auxiliary forces armouries.
They cut telephone and telegraph wires and disrupted the trains. however, they failed to find the ammunition and were gunned down by soldiers four days later.
Sen escaped, but was later betrayed to the British and hanged in 1934. L. E. Bowdler, Wisley, Surrey.
IS THERE a question to which you want to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question here? Write to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT; or email charles.legge@dailymail.co.uk. A selection is published, but we’re unable to enter into individual correspondence.