“La perla dell'Esposizione”: The Pavilion of Hungary and the Architectural Languages of Nation-Building at the International Exposition of Turin 1911

Abstract The 1911 Turin International Exposition, the world's fair held in Turin, Italy, celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the unification of Italy. Whereas most of the ephemeral buildings that were erected in Valentino Park emulated the graceful if formulaic shapes of architect Filippo Juvarra's Turinese baroque, the Pavilion of Hungary stood out as aggressively eccentric. Focusing on the architectural originality of the pavilion risks overlooking the fact that this building, just like the many other exposition structures built in the baroque revival, fully participated in the myth-making narratives of the age of nations and empires. After presenting the main elements of the baroque revival as the exposition's overarching architectural language, this article recovers and analyzes the architectural forms of the Pavilion of Hungary and interprets its alleged eccentricity in the context of the politics of the historical era that created it.