The reconstruction programme of the Tettye Park basically made it unavoidable to re-define the role of the palace ruin as an emphatic landscape element and architectural monument.

© Tamás Török

Having replanted the green area around the ruin, the formerly covered, fragmented building that could be characterised as a more unifiedt whole has managed to regain some of its original character.

© Tamás Török

The ruin

© Tamás Török

We designed an L-shaped, steel structure building part that had been missing from the south-eastern side, which includes a look-out tower and stairs leading to it.

© Td, steel structure building part that had been missing from the south-eastern side, which includes

Instead of a formal reconstruction we wanted to create such a mass in the place of the former wall corner that strengthens the building character of the ruin.

© Tamás Török

The new corner construction are cladded with perforated Corten steel emphasizing the difference between the old and new parts.

© Tamás Török

The diagram describes the 3 major levels of the intervention where we tried to restore both the physical and intellectual layers that contribute to the ruin

The southern side of the Palace (above) and the section through the ruin (below) shows also the new equilibrium between the different qualities of the Palace.

The existing ruins of the renaissance Szathmary Palace is one of Hungary’s most valuable protected monuments. The palace is situated in the city of Pecs which is one of the oldest town of Hungary’s southwestern region with long historical background. The ruins are located in a park of Tettye Valley which rises almost from the heart of the city, offering a magnificient view of the city from the top. Bishop Gyorgy Szathmary built his own Renaissance style summer residence here at the very beginning of the 16th century. After the long occupation of Hungary by the Ottoman Empire the building was left empty and its condition became worse and worse. Despite its long history and superb location, the palace in its bad condition was not able to fullfil the proper role derived from its historical and architectural importance.
In 2010 Pecs was one of the European Capitals of Culture, and as part of this, a priority project focussed on the renewal of public areas including Szathmary Palace. During the course of the architectural interventions, together with the monument protection authority, the ruin’s wholescale floorplan and its partial spatial reconstruction was carried out based on the scientific results of the archeological excavations. As a part of the floorplan reconstruction, the ground surfaces were redefined inside the outer walls of Palace, referring the former usage of spaces. Different new Corten-steel abstract elements (look-out tower, stage for the summer theater, street furnitures) were added also to the ruins redefining the role of the ruin as a building and as a vibrant public space, also creating a new contemporary context for the entire area.