Name Karoly Kos Books Transylvania | Role Architect | |
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Died August 25, 1977, Cluj-Napoca, Romania | ||
Kós Károly temetése - The funeral of Károly Kós
Karoly Kos (December 16, 1883 – August 25, 1977) was a Hungarian architect, writer, illustrator, ethnologist and politician of Austria-Hungary and Romania.
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Biography
Born in Temesvar, Austria-Hungary (now Timisoara, Romania), he studied engineering at the University of Budapest, and only afterwards turned towards architecture (graduating from the Budapest Architecture School in 1907). Already during his studies and at the start of his career, he had a special interest for the historical and traditional folk architecture, and made study trips to Kalotaszeg and the Szekely Land.
In 1909, his project for the Roman Catholic church in Zebegeny, in 1909 the Obuda Reformed parochial building, and in 1910 the Budapest Zoo complex (with Dezso Zrumeczky), were carried out. During the 1910s, he completed the Reformed Cock Church in Kolozsvar (a city later known as Cluj or Cluj-Napoca) and the hospital in Sepsiszentgyorgy (Sfantu Gheorghe). At the time, his style was influenced by the Vienna Secession and Art Nouveau.
In 1914, at the start of World War I, Kos moved to Stana (Sztana). He was drafted the following year, but soon discharged on request from the Ministry of Culture. Between 1917 and 1918, he was sent on a study trip to Istanbul. In 1918, Kos was asked to be a professor of the College for Applied Arts of Budapest, but he declined, wishing to return to Transylvania.
He lived off commissions and started a political career, choosing, unlike many in the Hungarian community, to accept the Romanian Kingdom's administration in the region as a given, while engaging in active opposition inside its legal framework (and authoring a manifesto calling on others to do the same). Alongside Lajos Albrecht and others, he was one of the founders of the Transylvanian People's Party in 1921 — the group later formed the Magyar Party. Kos also edited its illustrated political journal Vasarnap.
In 1924, he and several of his friends founded a publishing house under the name Erdelyi Szepmives Ceh ("Transylvanian Guild of Fine Arts"). From 1931, he was editor of the Erdelyi Helikon, and manager of the Miklos Barabas Guild (an independent interest group of Hungarian artists in Romania).
In 1944 his house in Stana (part of Northern Transylvania) was plundered, and he fled to Cluj, where he rejoined his family. He was director of the Transylvanian Hungarian Economic Association. As a politician, he was the president of the Hungarian People's Union (Magyar Nepi Szovetseg, MNSz), and afterwards member of the Assembly of Deputies (1946–48).
Kos taught at the College for Agriculture in Cluj until 1953, filling the post of the dean in 1945, and contributed to the journal Vilagossag between 1948-49. He died in Cluj.