“One night in my dream I saw a big light and three thrones: in the morning I jotted them down in no time and sent a letter to the Vatican that I had a calling to carve a seat for the pope,” the 47-year-old Rostas recounts.

His dream came true, and the project will culminate on December 22 with an official handing-over ceremony at the Vatican.

“On the throne, I will carve a hidden message that the Lord shall protect Benedict XVI,” says this slim, moustachioed man, showing a draft of the 2.5 metre-high (eight feet) chair he is crafting out of a 200-year old oak tree.

The Vatican is not the only prestigious location to benefit from the magic touch of this small-town carpenter from Marcali in southwestern Hungary. His skill in masterfully restoring and preserving woodwork that others would have cast away has won him contracts in Austria, Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands.

Rostas worked on the parquet of the Hall of Mirrors and Louis XIV’s console table in Versailles, on the restoration of wainscot panels at Paris’s Louvre museum, and in refurbishing antique furniture in several private chateaux in the Calvados region.

He takes pride in repairing items others have given up on, and has given new life to the inlaid doors of the Hungarian embassy in Vienna and worked on furnishings at Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria.

“The French and the Austrians, they want to preserve the last single nail if it is old… Germans prefer spotless functionality,” he observes.

But his native Hungary proved a harder nut to crack.

“All they want is a certificate. If I am not certified, I cannot do the job in my own right,” he complains.

And despite references from Hungary’s own parliament, the country’s biggest synagogue and the Swedish embassy here, a professional certificate is something the talented carpenter still lacks.

Born to Roma parents, Rostas was abandoned in hospital and raised in a state institution, an unlikely start for an ambitious man who since childhood had wanted to become “the best restorer in the world”.

But he bears no grudge against his unknown parents.

“Had I grown up in a gypsy slum, I would have never known art and become a restorer,” he reckons.

His large workshop in Marcali, covered with wood dust, abounds with new furniture parts waiting to be assembled as well as a range of real antique pieces, all in a sorry state.

These worm-eaten, mouldy cabinets, consoles and beds are in for a new life, however.

After thorough research in libraries and consultations with museums, Rostas cleans the parts, carves out the decaying bits and replaces them with meticulously selected and treated pieces before finally soaking the wood in an organic mordant.

“It has ingredients including horse dung water and human urine,” Rostas says, listing the uninviting substances already used by ancient Egyptians and even Leonardo da Vinci.

Taking his cue from earlier masters, Rostas adds berries, potatoes and garlic to create the appropriate colour, and finally cooks the wooden piece in perfumed oils.

“My restored cabinets do not smell bad, old or stuffy,” he boasts.

One of Rostas’s finest accomplishments is the winding staircase at Marcali’s Szechenyi Palace. Erected in 1880, it was about to be demolished when Rostas turned up to restore it to perfection.

The painstakingly precise inlays change shade with the light, the carved banisters show rich ornamentation, and the solid structure seems immovable — although, apart from a refined system of tenon and mortise joints, a simple but strong system used for thousands of years, it is held together by one single screw.

“I spent a night here, meditating on the stone floor, praying to discover where that crucial screw was,” Rostas recounts.

“Then the enlightenment came and I just knew where to look for it.”

In gratitude and to leave a trace, he hid a bottle of wine and a letter in one of the banister columns.

Probably Hungary’s single most talented restorer, Rostas is not a man of wealth: he never received any money for the majestic staircase that consumed his life 14 years ago.

But he shrugs it off, saying his mission is now to finish his gift to the pope before seeking work abroad where his desire to preserve and restore is more appreciated.

“My goal is not to get rich. What I want is to save as much beautiful old woodwork as possible.”

My name is Árpád Rostás, and I am a travelling carpenter

I am turning to you for help, support and sponsorship to be able to
realise the dream of my life. I would like to build a gothic church
in Hungary and next to it a school. The construction site is located
in a small village almost totally deserted by the inhabitants. It is
a place where there is no work and the people are hopeless. Many of
them are disabled; they have given up on their lives and they have
become the outcasts of the society.

I am planning to build this ecumenical church with the accompanying
school in Somogy County, for the people as a pilgrim- and
meeting-place.

The Treaty of Trianon scattered Hungarians, and I now would like to
bring all the Hungarians together who left their country, Hungary.

I wish to build the Church of Reconciliation.

I know, the whole thing sounds like a far-fetched dream that cannot be
fulfilled, but I do believe that it will be realised.

In the year 2011, we are planning to organise a World Peace Day at the
building site, to which we would like to invite the Pope as well.

The construction will be open and people from all over the world would
be welcome to see the process of the building – form digging the
foundations to the consecration of the church – and the work of the
Hungarian artisans.

Somebody called me crying saying that they have not been home to
Hungary in 30 years, but they would be delighted to support and help
the cause. Others have been calling from different countries saying
that they would be happy to come home to Hungary for this occasion.

I have received this task from God, a 15-20 years project, the task of
a lifetime. I would like to leave something, my work, for posterity,
as did the great masters of the past (Leonardo, Michelangelo, Titian,
Rafael, etc.).

I must and have to wage this struggle. I would like, I dearly want to
carry the cross that was carried by our Lord Jesus Christ.

There is peace in my heart.

I would like to save Humanity.

Sincerely yours,

Árpád Rostás

Travelling carpenter

+36304688935

I would like to breathe life again into the works of great, famous
masters, to create something magnificent, which displays elegance,
quality and exclusivity.

I have devoted my life to save the antiquities and monuments of the
past since this is the only way we can understand their messages.
I believe that anyone who, after reading my letter of introduction,
decides to order something from me, can be sure to receive quality
work.

My role models include: the furniture of the Hungarian Parliament
created by Endre Teák,
the complete fitments of the Károlyi Palace, including the staircase
in the hall,
just as the works of Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Ghirlandaio.
I have learnt a lot from Hungarian and foreign masters, and I was
lucky to expand my professional knowledge abroad as well.
My motto is: QUALITY – ASSURANCE – RELIABILITY

I sincerely hope to welcome you among my customers in the near future.

Best regards,
Árpád Rostás

Travelling carpenter, internationally recognised cabinetmaker,

researcher of antique furniture, inventor,

We should preserve wooden objects and reliquaries of the past for
future generations!
Conservation, reconstruction and reproduction of the furniture, wall
panels, parquet of castles, churches and mansions. Everything that is
made of wood!

Call “the artist of wood” call Árpád Rostás: +361 468-8935,
r.muvesz@gmail.com

Reference works:

- Chamber of the Hungarian Parliament: wall panel, handrail of the
stairs (1989-90)
- the inlaid doors at Hungarofruct (1990)
- the Andrássy Palace, Budapest, Bem Quay19 90 )
- the neo-renaissance wall panel at the Hungarian Academy (1991)
- Wooden doors of the synagogue of Kőbánya (1991)
- conservation of the benches of the synagogue in Dohány street (1992)
- the stairs of the Hospital of Marcal (1994)
-Theatre Museum, the legacy of Jenő Huszka (1995)
- the furniture of the Old National Theatre (1997)
- the furniture of the Swedish Embassy (2002)
- doors of the palace casino (2002)
- German-Hungarian University , Kossuth door, ceiling of the Mirror hall
(2003)
- the wooden elevation of Sörforrás restaurant in Váci street (2004)
- the antique furniture and parquetry of the Hertelendy palace (2004)
- fitments of the First Hungarian Badge shop (2005)
- Klotild Palace casino, stairs, panels, carvings, carved columns (2005)
- Kaposvár Stümmer furniture (2006)
- the wooden doors and windows and the internal area and the 200 year
old wooden stairs of the Himmer house in Székesfehérvár (2006)
- the mahogany ceiling of the parlour in the Károlyi Palace
(conservation of the works of Endre Teak)
- the original wooden doors and windows, the internal area and the
200 year old wooden beams and stairs of the Serház (Batthyány Palace)
in Szombathely (2006)
-conservation of the 150 years old dormer windows at the Rákóczi
street premises of Volksbank (2007)
- the parquetry of the Petőfi Literary Museum (Károlyi Palace) (2007)
- the 100 year old door and windbreak chamber of the women’s section
of Gellért bath (2007)
- the renovation of the loggia of the thermal bath of the men’s
section of Gellért bath (300 pieces) and the fitments of 67 dressing
cabins.

Furthermore:
- private mansions and palaces
- furniture of collectors (pearl, copper, ivory)
- construction of carriages, conservation of the wooden structure of organs

Reference works abroad:
- Hungarian Embassy in Vienna: renovation of the inlaid doors,
furniture and wall panel (1993)
- France : parquetry of the Versailles Palace of king Louis XIV (1997-98)
conservation of the consol table, mirror, wall panel
and various items of furniture from the

age of king Louis XIV (1997)
- France: Louvre – windows and wall panels (2000)
- Germany : Schloß Neuschwanstein (1999)
- parquetry of an English private palace (2001)
- the professional conservation of a 168 years old wall panel in a
private mansion, replacement of missing parts and the making of wall
panels and furniture having the same pattern (2008).
- Construction of New Wooden Church , the conservation of the wood
for the next 1000 years (2009)

- conservation of doors and windows of historic monuments in Szentendre
(2009)

I wish to save and preserve the valuable pieces and monuments of the
past, because if we throw away and leave everything to perish, the
world will irreversibly change around us and we will have nothing to
leave to the generations to come.
I have set my life to preserve the fitments of as many monuments,
churches and palaces as possible and to become a world famous
cabinetmaker.

I wish to work as long as I live to bring fame and prosperity to my
country, Hungary!
My aim in life is to work and work, and never cease to learn from the
great, old masters, and as a result to receive the Kossuth Prize.
Moreover, the secret dream of my life is to receive the Nobel Prize
for my researches.
I hope my works will evoke the tune of the Hungarian national anthem
all around the world in everyone who sees them!
We should never forget where we came from, our roots. Tears of emotion
flow from my eyes any time I think of my homeland. Let us be proud of
our country!
http://sombrero.sugarandsalt.hu/rostasmuvesz
> > http://rostasmuvesz.hu
> >
> > http://rostas.jimdo.com/porta/isten-hozta/fénykép-galéria/
> >
> > Ez az angol cim: A throne for the Pope: a Hungarian
> carpenter’s dream
> >

Érdeklődünk,hogy megkapták-e a “Mai mese”c.írásunkat,ha igen megjelentetik-e és ha igen akkor kaphatunk-e 1 példányt az ujságjukból.
Szerettel üdvözlünk mindenkit Ilonka és Laci