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In memoriam Academician Sándor Marosi

On 5th July 2009 the Hungarian and international 
geographical community lost one of its prominent 
personalities. Professor Sándor Marosi, a highly 
rated researcher of the fi rst generation of physical 
geographers after World War II, member of the 
Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS) passed away 
in 81st year of his life. He was laid to eternal rest 
beside his beloved wife, who died ten years before. 
The Lutheran funeral service in the New Public 
Cemetery in Budapest on 23 July was attended 
by the family members, and also by illustrious 
representatives of the national community of geo-
sciences, well-known personalities of the Hungarian 
Academy of Sciences (HAS), national institutions of 
learning, including universities, professional and 
social oganizations and a large company of friends. 
Farewell speaches were held by professors Ferenc 

Schweitzer, director of the Geographical Research Institute of HAS, Árpád Papp-Váry, 
president of the Hungarian Geographical Society and Szabolcs Leél-Őssy, president of 
the Hungarian Society for Karst and Speleological Research.

Marosi came from a poor and big family living in a large village on the Danube–
Tisza Interfl uve, the heart region of Hungary. He was born on 16 May 1929 in Soltvadkert 
where he spent his childhood. In 1947 he passed fi nal examination in Szilády Áron Reformed 
Secondary Grammar School in Kiskunhalas and in the same year he was admitt ed to 
Pázmány Péter University in Budapest where he received his diploma in 1952 as a teacher 
of geography and history. Simultaneously he also studied geology. He was a disciple of 
famous tutors in geography (Béla Bulla, Andor Kéz, Sándor Láng), geology and of the 
paleontologist of world renown Miklós Kretzoi who all infl uenced his early development 
of a researcher. 

Thanks to his talent and diligence Sándor Marosi was involved into research work 
as a student in the fi eld of hydrogeological mapping in sample areas of Great Hungarian 
Plain (Alföld). Later his att ention was drawn primarily by physical geography, geology, 
geomorphology and landscape mapping where he achieved his fi rst results in academic 
research.

Between 1948 and 1951 several scientifi c research institutions have been reorgan-
ised or established by the Ministry of Religious Aff airs and Education in Hungary. Among 
them a Geographical Library and Map Archive started its activity in close co-operation 
with the Institute of Geography of the University and with the Institute of History. Later 
it was renamed into Geographical Research Group and became incorporated into the 
Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS), and in 1967 reorganised into the Geographical 
Research Institute (GRI) of HAS.

Between 1951 and 1954 the research group was headed by Ferenc Koch. Among 
the founders of Research Group was Sándor Marosi whose scientifi c career started from 
that time. He has been a research worker from the very start and fi rst acted as scientifi c 
secretary of the institute (1968–1972), later he worked as deputy director (1973–1993) and 



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the right hand of Professor Márton Pécsi, director of the Institute between 1967 and 1990. 
In 1993 professor Marosi was elected a corresponding member of the HAS, and in 2001 he 
became its regular member. He was also one of the founders and fi rst editor of Földrajzi 
Értesítő (Geographical Bulletin), the offi  cial scientifi c periodical of the institute since 1952. 
From 1972 until 2002 he held the position of editor-in-chief of the journal.

His research activity in the fi eld of landscape geography started in the 1950s in the 
Mezőföld region (East Transdanubia) and proceeded with studies on the southern shoreline 
of Lake Balaton. Published with László Ádám and Jenő Szilárd The physical Geography of 
the Mezőföld presented a detailed geological and geomorphological survey about the region 
investigated. He and his colleagues were pioneers in geomorphological mapping based 
on geological investigations in Hungary. From the early 1960s Sándor Marosi studied the 
origin and formation of derasional valleys with diff erent genesis, then his att ention turned 
towards Inner Somogy region (part of Transdanubian Hills), its geomorphic evolution and 
morphological features. 

Still in the early 1960’s, together with Pál Jakucs, he conducted detailed ecological 
and geoecological typological studies completed by micro- and topoclimatic measurements, 
botanic and pedological surveys. All these gave an impetus to complex geoecological inves-
tigations. From the end of this decade several dozens of type localities had been selected to 
carry out detailed agroecological survey and mapping (at 1:2,000 through 1:10,000 scales) 
which resulted in series of thematic maps furnished by explanatory notes. 

The working out the methodology of landscape analysis and evaluation elaborated 
together with Jenő Szilárd was a milestone in his oeuvre during the 1970s. It was a remark-
able trend, followed by the relief analysis and complex evaluation of environment which 
involved the assessment of the environmental components by value ranking. As a result a 
remarkable contribution (Landscape and Environment) had been published in Geographical 
Bulletin (1981) where the most important aspects of the topic have been summarized.

The evaluation of individual environmental (landscape) components or the assess-
ment of their suitability for various purposes can be integrated into a complex landscape 
synthesis. The survey and evaluation of landscape potential as a summary of favourable or 
unfavourable nature endowments for cultivation was rendered as task and subject of the 
trend of landscape evaluation on the basis of the physical geographical factors. From this 
defi nition of landscape evaluation (expressed by Marosi) it follows its being not merely 
a new trend within physical geography but a discipline within applied geography. Thus, 
an economically and socially oriented and also ecologically centred landscape analysis 
and synthesis evolved in Hungary which contributed to the German school of landscape 
ecology as early as in the beginning of the 1960’s. Extending the notion ‘ecotop’ taken from 
landscape ecology to label a homogeneous territorial unit, it was suggested by Marosi to 
introduce ‘ecopott yp’(an acronym for ‘ecological potential type’).

In the spirit of this academic school a number of monograph series were published 
and also studies on macro-, meso and microregions released. Marosi played a leading role 
in this process. Under his editorship six volumes of a series entitled Landscapes of Hungary 
were issued. Geological conditions, paleogeography, mineral resources were presented, 
geomorphic evolution and relief patt ern, climate, drainage, natural vegetation and soil 
cover were tackled in close relation to each other. He was an eager member of the editorial 
board of National Atlas of Hungary (published in 1989 by Cartographia). For his outstanding 
editorial activities he was awarded by the Széchenyi Prize in 1990. 

A considerable editorial work of the Inventory of 230 physical microregions (micro-
landscapes) of Hungary was led by Marosi, in co-operation with Sándor Somogyi. This more 
than 1,000 paged scientifi c book was published in two volumes in 1991 with the involve-
ment of experts from outside and further authors from the Institute. The inventory focused 



145

on the natural components of primary importance. Location, land use, relief, geological 
conditions, climate, natural and cultivated vegetation, soils and specifi c landscape proper-
ties were presented along with a summary of landscape typology and recommendations 
of usage. The concise descriptions are supplemented by data and quantitative parameters. 
The physical factors of the natural resources were treated here in a manner which allows the 
survey of their spatial distribution and calculation for larger areal units. This work provides 
an overview of systematised information for land use planning in this way promoting the 
consideration of natural potentials and resources in their optimal use. The data base of the 
inventory has created foundations for a larger data bank with options of computer storage 
and manipulation.

As a mapping geographer Marosi was the member of the expert teams that created 
the map of natural landscape divisions of Hungary and the map of landscape types as a 
synthesis of landscape studies of diverse orientation and at diff erent scales. 

As a person respecting traditions and values he permanently took huge eff orts 
to secure Hungarian geography as an element of “national sciences” against att acs from 
outer bodies or political sides. He was the member, and later secretary and chairman of 
the Geographical Scientifi c Committ ee of the HAS, the member of the National Board of 
Science Associations where became the chairman of the Committ ee of Geography and 
Meteorology. His oeuvre contains nearly 30 books, 140 articles and book chapters, 25 guide 
books for excursions, dozens of thematic maps, and nearly hundred other publications 
(book reviews, chronicles etc.) 

It would require a separate paper to describe his activities in the Hungarian 
Geographical Society, an institution he highly esteemed from 1952 to his death. He was 
elected president in 1993 and again in 1997. Aft er fi nishing his second period in 2001 he 
became a honorary president of the Society. He was a regular participant of annual con-
ferences and fi eld trips of the Society for decades. He did his best to maintain, enlarge 
and develop the operation of the Society. For these achievements he won the Lajos Lóczy 
Award in 1982. Professor Marosi was also the highly appreciated member of the Hungarian 
Geological Society and the Hungarian Society for Karst and Speleological Research. Based 
on the life work outlined above it should be stated that Academician Sándor Marosi was 
one of the most prominent representatives of the great generation of Hungarian physical 
geographers and a leading personality of the domestic geography.

His memory will be saved by the Hungarian geographers.

Tibor Tiner