In 1977 during the ICOMOS conference in Budapest, an exposition was opened on Folk Monuments and Ensembles. The exposition was to acquaint the conference participants of the two decades long program of monuments protection and to call attention to the public to the importance of preservation of folk architectural heritage. The folk monuments protection began with restoration of individual structures and resulted in the protection of whole groups of rural structures. The reconstructed monuments have particular significance as documents of the history of Hungarian peasantry, although this significance can frequently be categorized as aesthetic rather than historical. Therefore, in the first phase the aesthetically significant rustic dwellings were restored; to these were added other visually impressive objects such as belfries, churches and gristmills which may be attached to this category with more or less justification.