Antal Szkalnitzky practised at a period when the terms of architecture itself were under argument.
The record lists Antal Szkalnitzky as Hungarian architect (1836–1878).
Antal Szkalnitzky was born at Geresdlak in 1836. His recorded nationality is Hungary.
Industrialisation gave architecture iron, glass and the lift, and with them the problems of the railway station, the factory and the tall city block.
He is recorded as architect and university teacher.
Among his best-known works are Main post office of Pest and Csokonai Theatre. Buildings outlast their architects and usually their purposes, which is what makes the discipline unforgiving.
That the work was built in Hungary shaped it: climate, materials, planning law and who holds the budget all decide what can actually be built.
Antal Szkalnitzky died in 1878, aged 42. The buildings remain, still in use by people who never knew the name - which is the particular afterlife architecture offers.
Achievements
- Notable work: Main post office of Pest
- Notable work: Csokonai Theatre
