Prison architecture – A retrospective study on the golden age of hungarian prison architecture based on Mór Erdélyi’s photographs

Abstract

The Budapest Prison Museum, the Hungarian Prison Service’s Profession History Collection and Document Library, has many exciting objects with cultural importance and historical value. One of the interesting collection pieces is the photo album, which contains Mór Erdélyi’s photos from the early XX. century, in which we nd eleven photographs of the penal institutions located in the former historical territory of Hungary. The album allows us to recall one of the signicant episodes of the
prison services’ past, the history of priso architecture. the establishment of the penal institutions and the formation of functional buildings are the results of the joint work of theoretical thinkers and technical professionals/specialists, which spanned centuries and were framed by the intellectual  currents of the given eras. The beginning of the story, which is sometimes laced with pitfalls and detours, can be traced back to the Medieval times, although domestic development cannot be interpreted without the presentation of general structures.