Research Center of rare diseases

designer

Enikő Hitró

consultant architect:
Péter Kovács DLA

There is a "forgotten" cemetery in the neighborhood of the chosen plot. The barely noticeable remains of the two main gates and a chapel ruin reminds us to the place of mercy called cholera cemetery by the locals. The last burrial was in 1915 here, during World War I, so it no longer functions as a cemetery. The local building code designates it as a memorial park, but this role has also been forgotten. In recent years, thanks to local history activists, the area was cleared of trees and shrubs, so some gravestones became visible.

During my library and archival research, it turned out that a military barracks hospital operated at this location during World War I. This was created because the central hospitals in Miskolc could no longer receive and care for the wounded. The soldiers who were wounded and suffering from the epidemic came here from the Galician front closest to Miskolc. Thanks to Dr. Imre Pfiegler /Miskolc's chief physician at the time/ and his self-sacrificing colleagues, thousands of Hungarian and foreign-speaking soldiers were saved, but many of them - having survived the horrors of the war - could no longer fight the epidemic (cholera, rash typhus). As a sign of their gratitude, those who recovered built the chapel, of which only the gate remained. The mercy park is the final resting place of nearly 1,000 soldiers.

During my further research, it also turned out that Dr. Imre Pfiegler's grandson, Dr. György Pfiegler, today the head of the Department of Rare Diseases at the University of Debrecen, who achieved many successes in medicine with his research and publications. This dedication and commitment to medicine and patients, led me to design a Rare Disease Research Center for my thesis.