The cathedral at Vác and universal architecture

Abstract

The cathedral of Vác was built by Isidore Ganneval (Canecvale) who accompanied his master, Niccolo Servandoni to Vienna in 1760. He did not return to his homeland of France but remained in Vienna until the end of his life (1786). In 1761, he was appointed to design the cathedral at Vác. As there are no original plans, in the research, there is some diversity of opinion about the artist’s origin; we do not know whether there were stages in his development. Attention is directed towards the cathedral because it is stylistically close to “French revolutionary architecture”. The study deals with the totally novel character of the building and its stylistic parallels (e.g. Contant d’Ivry in France and Plattenstil in Austria). The hypothesis is that representations of the cathedral with high towers in place of the present sturdy version are signs of an earlier, more traditional plan.