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AbstractIn the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the central territory of Hungary was occupied by the Ottoman Empire. This long occupation resulted in the creation of what are the northernmost examples of Ottoman architecture in a cultural environment framed by non-Muslim structures. Since 1699, when the Ottoman Empire lost its influence over its Hungarian territories, Islamic religious buildings became private property or came under the maintenance of the Church or monastic orders. In 2013, an extraordinary process began: with the official cooperation and the financial support of the Republics of Turkey and Hungary, experts from both countries initiated projects to preserve and restore the Ottoman monuments in Hungary. Although a similar approach had been adopted in many countries in the Balkan Peninsula – for example in Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, and Kosovo, this was one of the first attempts at an institutionalised, global dialogue on the preservation and restoration works of Islamic sacral heritage within both Hungary and the European Union. This article presents the history of the preservation and restoration works of Ottoman heritage in Hungary. In addition, some of the unique structural features are outlined as these will be taken into consideration during present and future restoration efforts.

Ernő Foerk (1868-1934) born 150 years ago has significant oeuvre in the field of monument preservation and architectural education. As professor, one of his achievements was the organisation of summer survey camps named as ‘szünidei felvételek’ (vacation records) which was also accessible in published form. In the year of 1917 under his supervision, his students have surveyed all the scored Ottoman monuments of Hungary. In the following year these survey drawings were published with a brief summary of the history of Ottoman architecture in the territory of Hungary. Our paper is to submit the general circumstances of the Ottoman survey program supervised by Ernő Foerk with its historical background and the analysis of the methodology of the survey by the example of the türbe of Pécs.