Budapest Secession

61. House of Sándor Korányi

Váci utca 42, Belváros
Zoltán Bálint & Lajos Jámbor, 1908

On this sophisticated façade, ceramics have been used as a divider. On the top floors, there is a mesh decoration. The building was home to Sándor Korányi, a well-known medical professor.

 

62. Apartment building on Nyár utca 10

Dezső Freund, 1908

This façade is made up of geometric shapes, such as the trapezoid. There are also masks on the façade. The roof solution is interesting.

 

63. Schöpf-Merei Hospital

Bakáts tér 10, Ferencváros
Emil Tőry, 1908

This is another beautiful Hungarian Secessionist building in the Ferencváros district.

 

64. Pajor Sanatorium

Vas utca 17, Palotanegyed
Dezső Hültl, 1908

This building started life as a water therapy centre and is now used by the Semmelweis University Faculty of Health Sciences.

 

65. Apartment building on Wesselényi utca 13

Gyula Biró, 1908

This building could as well easily be located in Riga.

 

66. Hungária Bath

Dohány utca 42-44, Erzsébetváros
Emil Ágoston, 1907-1909

Mineral waters were discovered on this site in the 1820s. In 1827, the Gamperl Baths were established here, named after the owner. They were destroyed during the Pest floods in 1838 and rebuilt in the 1840s under the name of the Hungária Baths. The current building dates from the Art Nouveau period. It originally had a swimming pool with a mechanically movable glass roof. Parts of that building were destroyed during the 20th century. The Continental Hotel Budapest now operates in what is left of it.

 

67. Apartment building with shops on Népszínház utca 25

József & László Vágó, 1908-1909

This building is noteworthy because of the festive decoration between the windows of the fourth floor.

 

68. Késmárky & Illés Árkád Bazár

Dohány utca 22-24, Erzsébetváros
József & László Vágó, 1908-1909

This building began life as a toy store. It was located on the ground floor and was one of the biggest toy stores in Europe at the time. Many toys and animal figures sold here were made of eosin produced in the Zsolnay Porcelain Manufacture in Pécs. On the façade the architects drew inspiration from folk art but also, because of the white ceramic tiles with dotted knobs imitating bolts, from the works of Otto Wagner.

The ground-floor shop has been used for a variety of purposes, especially in recent years.

 

69. Parisiana Orfeum

Paulay Ede utca 35, Terézváros
Béla Lajta, 1908-1909

This exotic-looking building is an outstanding example of Hungarian Secession, but it can also be considered as a precursor of Art Deco. It is one of my favourite façades in Budapest, because of the elegant contrast between the minimalist lower part and the cornice, decorated with winged angels and golden motifs reminiscent of hieroglyphs. The building now houses the New Theatre of Budapest.

 

70. Weber House

Flórián tér 3, Óbuda
Antal Gyárfás, 1909

As far as I know, this is the only Art Nouveau building in Óbuda.

 

71. Apartment building on Dózsa György út 64

Gyula Fodor, 1909

Typical 19th- and early-20th-century residential buildings in Budapest have apartments placed around a central courtyard on multiple storeys. This structure displays a more complex arrangement of volumes, reminiscent of some bigger National Romantic buildings in Helsinki.

I would hereby like to thank my friend Nick, who gave me a tour in this building and showed me its staircases, balconies, stained-glass windows, and the backyard.

 

72. Apartment building on Visegrádi utca 14

Vilmos Magyar, 1909

This is another rustic Art Nouveau building.

 

73. Székács Villa

Városligeti fasor 31, Erzsébetváros
Artúr Sebestyén, 1909-1910

This villa, located next to the house of Zsigmond Vidor, was built by Imre Székács (Schwarz), an entrepreneur in glass industry. It was designed by Artúr Sebestyén, one of the architects of the Gellért Baths. Its interior is said to be very beautiful, with decorations of Zsolnay ceramics and stained glasses by Miksa Róth. Notable features on the outside include the pediment, the façade fountain and the garden fence.

 

74. Apartment building on Kruspér utca 3

József Porgesz, 1909-1910

The most interesting part of this building is the entrance door.

 

75. Hadik House

Bartók Béla út 36-38, Lágymányos
Jenő Svarcz & Horváth Antal, 1909-1910

This building houses Hadik Café. It was one of the most legendary old coffeehouses of Budapest, associated with the names of prominent literary figures such as Frigyes Karinthy, Dezső Kosztolányi, and Móricz Zsigmond. It operated from 1906 to 1940. The Egypt-influenced building is from 1909-1910.

 

76. Goldmann House

Dózsa György út 17, Istvánmező
Gyula Karvaly, 1910-1911

The façade of this building is adorned with many reliefs.

 

77. Vermes House

Irányi utca 15, Belváros
Ödön Lechner, 1910-1911

This building is, surprisingly, a late work of Ödön Lechner. The upper part of the façade is covered with light-coloured ceramic tiles, fixed by small diamond-shaped bolts. This immediately brings to mind the Österreichische Postsparkasse in Vienna, constructed some years before. Unlike Otto Wagner’s building, however, the lines and volumes here are still clearly Art Nouveau. The balcony railings, where a boat seems to be floating on waves, are very interesting.

 

78. Apartment building on Dembinszky utca 18

Jenő Hübner, 1910-1911

The thick ornamental frames around the openings make this façade one of the most distinctive in the neighbourhood.

 

79. Hotel Palace

Rákóczi út 43-45, Józsefváros
Marcell Komor & Dezső Jakab, 1910-1911

This Art Nouveau hotel is one of the many around Blaha Lujza Square, which, in the early-20th century was, unlike now, a posh centre of animation in the city.

 

80. Paris Department Store

Andrássy út 39, Terézváros
Zsigmond Sziklay, 1909-1911

The Paris Department Store, commissioned by Sámuel Goldberger, was the first independent department store constructed in Hungary. Its multi-storey inner atrium set a pattern for other Western-style department stores in the city.

The building’s predecessor in this location was the Terézváros Casino, designed by Gusztáv Petschacher in 1882. The casino’s grand ballroom, decorated with elaborate frescoes by Károly Lotz, functioned, until spring 2017, as a café, under the name of Lotz Hall (now Café Párisi).