Ignác Alpár began his career as a stonemason, then worked under architect Alajos Hauszmann. After completing formal studies in Berlin, he returned to Budapest to work under Imre Steindl and Hauszmann again. He began independent practice in 1890, working mainly on public projects in a historicist, eclectic style. The most well known of these is the so-called Vajdahunyad Castle built for the millenary celebrations in 1896, which incorporated architectural styles practised in Hungary from the Middle Ages to the Baroque period.
