In this book Akos Moravanszky presents the first comparative study of the architecture of the countries that defined the Austro-Hungarian monarchy from 1867 to 1918. He discusses the aesthetic innovations of Central European architects by analyzing key buildings and by studying the crucial debates about modernity, national identity, tectonic form, and the social role of the architect. As a reflection of this complexity, the issue-centered chapters explore architectural history in clusters, rather than through a linear development toward a monolithic modern form.

Central European intellectuals recognized that real change cannot be introduced merely by changing the political and economic system; human consciousness itself must be transformed. Artists and architects played a leading role in this transformation as they explored the limits of their freedom. Although their social environment contained many feudal elements, their cultural heritage offered more artistic freedom than did other historical regions of Europe. This book unfolds the wide spectrum of problems that Central European artists and architects faced in the first decades of the century. It also examines the changing interpretation of architecture by the critics of the time.