Sárospatak (meaning muddy stream) is a pleasant little town on the Bodrog River in Hungary's northeastern corner, close to the Slovak border. Due to the role it once played in Hungary's cultural and intellectual life, it used to be called "Athens on the Bodrog," and it won the Hild Medal in 1987 for its masterly mix of traditional and modern in town development. I wanted to visit because it hosts six buildings by renowned Hungarian organic architect Imre Makovecz, who died Sept. 27, 2011, a huge number for such a small town. His relationship with Sárospatak started in 1972, when he was on the Communist Party's blacklist, with a shopping center that was radically different from the prevailing style and continued with a culture center, an asymmetrical, organic apartment building, a modern building on the 1531 campus of the Calvinist College, a cathedral-like high school and lastly the gates to a thermal bath.

More information on Makovecz can be found here http://www.makovecz.hu/main.html -- look under Most Important Projects. For my gallery on the work of Makovecz, visit https://pbase.com/helenpb/makovecz. For my gallery on the work of Makovecz, visit https://pbase.com/helenpb/makovecz