Hungarian architects in South Asia and their mediation in the Hungarian architecture

The role of oriental art was significant in architecture at the turn of the 19^th and 20^th century. While the Art Nouveau movement in Western Europe was influenced by the Japanese and Persian art, Hungary made efforts to find the origin of the Hungarian architecture. This study presents the Asian trip of architect Károly Róbert Kertész, published in his work entitled Architecture of Ceylon. In the 1930’s architect István Medgyaszay was invited to India to design a museum in Mumbai. His archive, containing the plans, photographs and letters born during the trip, can be found in the Medgyaszay Memorial House. During the reconstruction of Medgyaszay’s Indian trip (2021) some mysterious watercolour plans were discovered among his designs. Additionally, as a result of the research in Mumbai (2020) this study introduces István Medgyaszay’s friendship with Perin Jamshedji Mistri, the first professional woman architect in India; and highlights the role of Jenő Cholnoky geographer in the work of both of the aforementioned architects.

Keywords: architecture, Art Nouveau, Ceylon, Jenő Cholnoky, Dagoba, India, Károly Róbert Kertész, Ödön Lechner, István Medgyaszay, Perin Jamshedji Mistri, Sri Lanka, Sinhalese, Stupa, Vilmos Zsolnay