Vacated Throne: Eghia Hovhannesian and the Campaign to Restore Gödöllő (Accepted)

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
Today’s town of Gödöllő, an easy 30km suburban train ride away from Budapest, is notable for its university, its industries, and above all its stately Royal Palace. During the Comprise Era (1867-1918), however, it was also a flourishing vacation spot for monarchs and commoners alike. Queen Elisabeth made it her Hungarian retreat, helping cement her popularity as a Magyarophile. Its shady woodlands and adequate distance from Budapest—not to mention the presence of the Habsburg court—made it a handy (if underdeveloped) destination for bourgeoises fleeing the choked environs of the industrializing metropolis. But the war and regime change extinguished a seemingly brighter future for Gödöllő’s tourist trade, leaving it, in that regard at least, another casualty of 1918. This paper explores the interwar effort waged by a handful of local personalities to restore Gödöllő’s place in the sun. Led—or at least most loudly proclaimed—by the lawyer Eghia Hovhannesian, the campaign sheds light on the intersection of tourism and post-imperial politics. For Hovhannesian and his cohorts, the revival of their town went hand-in-hand with the “resurrection” of Hungary, their fates entwined in the same vision of combat of Good against Evil. The prevailing forces that drove the national tourism industry, though, did not feel likewise about Gödöllő as a site of salvation.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Andrew Behrendt (PhD, University of Pittsburgh) is Assistant Teaching Professor of History at the Missouri University of Science & Technology. He specializes in Hungarian and Austrian history in the post-1867 era, particularly on the topics of tourism, moviegoing, and cuisine. This presentation is part of the ongoing conversion of his dissertation into a monograph.