András török's budapest by Andras Török

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András Török’s Budapest Seven Photos of Old Budapest, from the Fortepan Communal Archive

ortepan (www.fortepan.hu) is a recently launched online private photo archive. You can browse 4,973 images at the moment. Freely downloadable, you can choose People, Objects, Venues and All Categories. The initiators, Ákos Szepessy and Miklós Tamási, historians at OSA archives, plan to add more photos, and will accept offerings from members of the public. They also plan to categorize the archive later. A monumental collection of everyday life in the 20th century, I have picked seven Budapest-related images, to give you a sample. at it was not s! What a pity th bridge, and also wa ge id Br th be r e original Elisa need for a wide How beautiful th inal form. The reason was the s all over Europe. ig 60 or 19 e e th th in in emic rebuilt sm - a lethal epid raging moderni

the re crowded, all ard. All trams we res that the “young ev ul Bo nd ra G cla 50s, on dly de e time in the 19 Plan. The overthe front. It prou Tram No. 6, som d star and the notice board on r the success of the Five Year peared on the fo ap re st e rs time. Note th e doing their be ’70s and the ’80s, as more ca akhanovists) ar workers” (i.e. St trams slowly diminished in the s. lem e crowding on th entirely different kinds of prob g streets – causin János Horvay w as Kossuth Square a specialist of Kossuth statu es ment of The Fa in 1927. The sculptor presente . This one was unveiled in ll. d “pessimistic, un In 1951 the Communist gove the cabinet at the moworthy” statue. rn Dombóvár, a sm Luckily, it surv ment had it removed, as a iv broken up into all town in southwest Hunga ed and is now in a park in ry, although th individual piec e group has be es. en

This is a May D ay Stalin statue, in parade in the first years of the th 19 worthy here is th e top right corner (and destroy 50s – this is evident from the ed not forced to pr at these people seem to be genu on 23 October, 1953.) Noteetend so. But th en why did they inely interested in the parade, not join the mar ch?

been taken? And did the little oasis of Where could this photo have possibly in front of it, as happened in the last built open space survive, or was a block g adult classic published in 1907? pages of The Paul Street Boys, the youn

there used to be red stars everywhere. Not just on the façade of the Even elderly people nowadays tend to forget that during the Communist period in typical Orwellian doublespeak: “Eternal Glory and Gratitude to the says, sign The trams! on even and , Eastern Station, but on the National Museum !” Liberator Supporter of Our Independence, the Soviet Union, our

(?) cable with such ferocity? Are these Why do they have to pull that telephone passers by stopped in the street and them of most were people professionals, or front of Rózsavölgyi bookshop. The othasked to help out? As evident, we are in for Leitersdorfer, Imperial and Royal er shop space (now a pharmacy) was built designer of the block, Béla Lajta. ng Court Tailor, the father of the trend-setti

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András Török’s Buda

udapest is no Paris, no New York City either. Unlike them, it is like a strong spring that was pressed down for a long time, and was unleashed “recently”: in 1989/1990. Though the time is historically speaking quite long (think about the period between the two world wars – it is as long as that!), still the freshness somehow lingers in the air. This is especially so in the restaurant and café scene, but also in the enthusiasm with which students and middle class people pass on the info of the week. There is cutthroat competition, and innovation is much appreciated. Here follows the biased list of the author of this column.

The horse with the shiniest testicles anywhere The nickname of this daredevil general of humble origin (1710– 1790) was “the most hussar of hussars”. He was the commander of the Buda Castle and a favorite of the Empress Maria Theresa. In October 1757, with a small force, he besieged Berlin and made it pay a ransom. He also demanded 50 pairs of gloves for the empress (which were allegedly found to all be left-handed on closer inspection). The statue (by György

arch spent ents of a present European monlért Bath A luxury bath where the par Gel : olis rop met that is also a their honeymoon, in a spa city in 1918 as part of a s older than actually is: it was completed Like many Budapest buildings, it look time for a swim, at the spare ot cann you If s. bath of city a conscious effort to make Budapest into house entrance (on the side of the building) for the sake bath least take a walk through the separate the roofed-over ceiling. Walk all the way back to look at pool ticket. Hotel of seeing the mosaic floor and the glass a swimming have to osed supp are you – in slip to faces the Danube, part of the swimming pool. Try to the baths. The hotel’s main entrance guests have a separate lift to come down of the 1960s in the so-called “old modern” style. Princess and the lobby was rebuilt at the beginning and Prince Bernhard spent some time here in the hotel ds) Juliana (future Queen of the Netherlan hegyi út 4, www.gellertbath.com) and the bath in January 1937. (XI. Kelen

A com m There w unist stat u counter as a debate ove e theme pa they we par ts who werer what to do w rk built wit it h r were re e or destroy th sculpted in m h the Lenins, love and c located M a a e r m b le . It a n ended in them (D to the o d bronz ar xes, and the re u e e a ts : s w ig le k ir is t n them sta ir loca l ts of Bu ed by th e comp Most ar ro da e y e to cour bad ar t, but n architect Eleő pest, where a mise and the s where t d p ta The jud for v iolating thot a ll. The plac Á kos, who ha ark was built to tues e g declarin e in charge of e law banning became famo d won the conte house u th center, g that, “the da e case v isited the display of s when it was st). it to n ta utca, w ’s about a 30-m ger posed to s the park and d ta litarian sy m ken w w.szo borpark inute drive. ( ociety is neglig ismissed the c bols. XX II. B h .hu) a latoni ible.” By car fr arges, om the út, corn er of Sz a bad k a i

Lifestyle 27

wide river: d without a st Basilica an h it w ew but is still udape The vi a Deck of B in the mid-1990s the Panoramdeck around the dome opened ps or a lift that takes the ste a The observation to Budapesters. There are 302 ene changes: you climb out of n sc n. e ow th tio kn ps uc un tr ste ns ely 0 larg n co e 20 e top. After som e of the dome in a wrought iro e dome, which weaklings to th e insid de of th th tsi to ou in e th be d tu an ilt e u enthralled n the insid specially bu tside will keep yo the space betwee Then you’ll see g experience. The panorama ou er the hidden sights that are ov is quite a thrillin utes. Take your time and disc id-April to mid-October). m in for at least 15 m ry mortals. (V. Szt. István tér, na invisible to ordi in the world: General Hadik on his steed Vastagh Jr.) was unveiled in 1937. Experts say that it is a perfect image of the ideal, effortless, and elegant cooperation between horse and rider. If you look very close, you’ll see that the horse’s testicles are shiny yellow. Generations of engineering students have touched the parts on the morning of difficult exams (a student hostel was once very near here). It may or may not bring luck. (I. Corner of Úri utca and Szentháromság utca).

(Probably) T In the early 2000he oldest “ruin pub” in Europe: Szi m student caterin s, the so-called “ruin pubs”, a typically Budape pla kert g facility, starte d to emerge, pa They are genera rticularly in the st genre of lly open-air beer se temporarily un used buildings, gardens located in the inner venth district. courtyards of and are often op gest operating ex en am fo ple, Szimpla Ke favorite of stude rt, is found in r a single season. The lonnt features film sc s and expats, it tends to be cr the old Jewish quarter. A real re ow meant originally enings and incredibly worn-o ded every evening, and also ut PhD students th to survive only one season. So furniture and equipment, m an not. (VII. Ke rtész utca 48, w e evenings there are more ww.szimpla.hu)

A museum in a building that has been an HQ for both a fascist party and the communist secret police: the House of Terror Museum Recognizable from far away, it attracts attention because of its black passépartout, which works especially well when it’s sunny and the word “Terror” appears to be written on the wall by the sun. Converted into a museum in 2002, the House of Terror Museum – the only one of its kind – is a monume nt to the memory of those held captive, tortured and killed here. 60 Andrássy út became a meaningful address with dark connotations from 1937 when the Hungarian fascists, the Arrow Cross Party, rented an increasing amount of space there. When the Soviets liberated Budapest from the Nazis (in what later proved to be a “liberation” in the Orwellian sense of the word only) the communist political police moved in to the place in February 1945. Joining the cellars of adjacent buildings created a prison labyrinth, and the State Security Police possessed the building until 1956. The museum concept design was partly done by Sándor Fábry, a talk show star and screenplay writer. A mustsee for the serious traveler. (VI. Andrássy út 60, www.terrorhaza.hu)

Photography: Rob Gallop, Nigel, HeatherOnHerTravels, Colros

pest

Six things to show a first time business traveller who is not easy to impress

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A ndrás Törö k’s Budapest W

elegant, spacious, happy interior, complete with minimalistic design, and especially pretty lighting. It is a welcome addition to the neighborhood, previously known only for theaters and luxury goods. The grandiose café can host about 100 guests at a time, in chairs that either torture (the black wooden ones) or pamper (the London club-type armchairs). Service is attentive, and the choice and price range are OK. It is a great addition to the Budapest café scene – not a revival, but a genuine addition based on old virtues. Now three eras coexist peacefully in that building: 1883, 1911 and the 2008/9 renovation, especially sensed in the main entrance and the glass structure on the top, only visible from the back. The view from the top, seen far left, is somewhat distorted: it is much smaller in reality. (Courtesy of Sándor Csontó.)

ith a little exaggeration, one can say that everything (apart from the setting) that makes Budapest grandiose as a city was built in the period of the late 19th and early 20th century that lasted from 1867 to 1914. The Open Society Archives is housed in a building like that. It is a private institution that also operates an exhibition space in the foyer called the Galleria Centralis, with the ambition to represent ideas, notions, and phenomena that haven’t been shown before, sometimes bordering on the impossible. As its headquarters turns 100 years old this April, it decided to organize a community commemoration on the weekend of April 9-10, when there will be events all over town, in 100-year-old residential blocks and institutions. And there are many of them; 1911 seems to have been a peak year in building activity in Budapest. Look at the red dots on the map at www.budapest100.hu, and you will doubtless be amazed. The Open Society Archives is organizing the event in alliance with KÉK, the Contemporary Architecture Center, and many volunteers. They are an ambitious lot who dream of a “moveable feast”: next year the want to celebrate those buildings completed in 1912.

The 100 year old Goldberger building

One of the most prominent private academic institutions is basically an archive that serves to maintain the proper historical memory of Hungarian society. One of the means to this is its incredibly complex website, which is continuously being further developed. It is a great example of the democratization of knowledge. On the facade of the building a large sign says: “Goldberger”. The pre-modern building was erected for a company called Goldberger Samuel and Sons (Dávid Jónás and Zsigmond Jónás), and once served as the workplace for 120 people. After it was nationalized (i.e. confiscated from the owners), it was converted into a warehouse – a very elegant one, indeed. In 1981 it was opened to a limited public as a “shop for diplomats”; anyone who legally owned U.S. dollars could enter. When it was renovated for the archive, many original elements were restored. The classic modern wooden and aluminum chairs were saved from destruction when the old Ferihegy Airport was closed for renovation. (V. Arany János utca 32, www.osaarchivum.org) A much less old institution in the Goldberger House

To the left of the archive’s entrance there is a high-class, very original salad and sandwich bar (open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every weekday). It has a nice website, though in Hungarian only that, somewhat unusually for a salad bar, includes a mission statement: “Our mission is to prepare the yummiest juices in the

A 100-year-oId charity shelter

somewhat clumsily used throughout Communist times: summer sales and Christmas toy sales were usually held here. During the recent renovation a new and final role was found for the Lotz Hall: the Alexandra Bookshop was opened on November 9,

region, to win prizes, and to become famous in order to get a banana-shaped yacht painted yellow to live on. And we would have a great time!” But it is not a weird place for nerds and bluestockings at all. It provides the best serious magazines in town, from The New Yorker to A10 and Monocle. (www.fruccola.hu) A 100-year-old department store

This seven-story building, built for the old Parisian Department Store, opened in 1911. Earlier there had been a neighborhood club

called the “Casino” on the site, completed in 1883, which had gone bankrupt in the early 1900s. Architect Zsigmond Sziklai succeeded in persuading the new owners (who else but the Goldberger family!) to preserve the casino’s large and opulently decorated ballroom, which was called the Lotz Hall (after the painter Károly Lotz) and was at the back of site, overlooking Paulay Ede utca. Thus, a funny and highly original mixture was created: a modernlooking front and a traditional back, a sort of “architectural centaur”. This Lotz Hall was

2009, with a long-awaited ceremony, when the renovated Parisian Department Store also became accessible to the public. The Alexandra Bookshop occupies the ground and first floor in a space worthy of Rizzoli in New York or Hatchard’s in London. It is an

The quick development of Budapest before and after 1900 made it possible to initiate an active anti-poverty policy, which aimed to design and build state-of-the-art “night shelters”. The emblematic building was called the People’s Hotel (“Népszálló”), and it was intended for working males who wanted to rent more than just a bed in town, but could not afford a room. There were 417 little cubicles in the building, which tenants could use from 7 p.m. to 8 a.m., though those who wanted to sleep here had to buy a ticket every day. The city council debated the “luxuries” of the design (unlike similar British complexes, there were toilets at the end of the floors on every single level, and the ceilings were higher than often found abroad). Critics argued that experience from outside Hungary showed that at least 500 cubicles would have been necessary to make the project sustainable, while others described it as nothing more than a “show off project for foreigners”, and a “world class palace of advertising”. True enough, it was losing money, even when full. Partly because of that, and partly because of WWI, no other people’s hotel was built, though they had been planned for each district. But this building has kept on serving the homeless, until this very day. (XIV. Dózsa György út 152, near Dózsa György út metro, line 3.)

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András Török’s Budapest

Seven Recent Statues (some may be new even for Aboriginal Budapesters)

(the country’s borders prior to the end of WWI). You can browse it on a map, according to artist or title. There are several photos attached to each entry. You can add photos, and even initiate a new entry.

For those who are interested, there is a wonderful corpus of data at your disposal, a portal edited by unpaid volunteers. It started some years ago as szoborlap.hu (statue sheet), but last year was renamed kozterkep.hu (“public space map”), and covers not just Budapest, but all Greater Hungary

The following statues were all erected in the last five years. All are well made pieces, fit for a public space. Most even belong to that obscure category called “contemporary art”. That term vaguely means that a statue reflects its own age, and makes us think every time we look at it. Some are simply nice – and stop tourists and induce them to take funny pictures with their partner included.

owadays there is a small specialist agency that assists anyone who would like to erect a new public artwork anywhere in Budapest. It’s called Budapest Gallery, and organizes design contests or issues expert opinions for Budapest City Council – the body that gives or denies permissions.

Scooter boy 2008

This is a lovely statue, near the Pest end of Elisabeth bridge, by an artist called Boldi (full name: Boldizsár Szmrecsányi). At closer inspection one realizes that the boy is scrutinizing the sky, not the road ahead. And the vehicle is also an impossible construction… A statue ideally fit for outdoors placement. (District V, corner of Duna utca and Váci utca.)

Before the end of the 19th century there were very few public statues in Budapest. The real proliferation of them (in the negative sense of the term) started in the Communist period. The openly totalitarian pieces were relocated to Memento Park, in District XXII – worth visiting for serious public artwork lovers, or those in search of a spot of what the Germans call Ostalgie, nostalgia for the old Eastern Bloc.

Sztehlo 2009

Gabor Sztehlo was a Lutheran pastor who saved thousands of persecuted Jewish kids during the Holocaust, and later cared for the orphans among them. He was not exactly a favorite of the Communists, which is why this statue was erected so late. It represents a chef d’oeuvre of the great sculptor Tamás Vigh, and somehow manages to look very different from every angle. Take your time if you see it… (District V, Deák tér, near the church.)

Ronald Reagan 2011

This is the second statue of the American president in Budapest. The first (a bust) was erected in City Park. This one is of bronze, and 2.2 meters high, so larger than life, like the man himself. He is shown walking towards the American Embassy. (By István Máté, in District V, Szabadság tér, at Vécsey utca.)

“Uncle Charlie” 2008

Already a tourist favorite, it was modeled after the grandfather of the artist, András Illyés, who was indeed a policeman, and used to look like this, though he could only wear this particular helmet on public holidays. That’s a small liberty few people would mind, if they had known. (District V, corner of Október 6 utca and Zrínyi utca.)

The Very First Statue of Steve Jobs, Ever 2011

Graphisoft is a highly successful Hungarian IT company, which Steve Jobs had helped in its very early steps. That’s why founder Gábor Bojár was especially sad to hear the news of Jobs’ death. Within weeks a tender was organized, and the winning design, by Ernő Tóth was realized in two months. The text reads, “The only way to do great work is to love what you do...” It is in Graphisoft Park, a large group of high tech buildings, and a symbol of New Hungary. (District III, Záhony utca 7.)

Historica 2012

This is the work of the Slovenian sculptor Andrej Gabrovec Gaberi, behind the Salt House building of Corvinus University. An almost totally identical artwork has been erected in several universities in the region. It is a poetic rendering of the contrast between masculine war efforts and feminine caring and love. (In District IX, Csarnok tér, a newly revamped square.)

Prayer for the Rebirth of Painting 2011

This exceptionally subtle work of contemporary art was erected by donations from the Circle of Lovers of Painting and the Hungarian Jewish Association, on the site of what had been the National Salon. It commemorates a great showroom erected in 1907, pulled down in 1960. (By János Kalmár, in District V, Erzsébet tér, near Harmincad utca.)

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András Török’s Budapest

Seven facts all expats should know about Budapest’s metro lines

A request to build a tramline on Andrássy út was turned down – that’s why they built the first underground in 1896, to connect inner city and City Park. Writer and essayist László Cs. Szabó called it the “Gerbeaud-Gundel Train Line”. Though Hungary introduced the “keep to the right” rule in 1941, the old underground operated according to the “keep left” standard until 1973. The iron supporting columns are green all along the line, except for at the Opera station: the columns are brown and their capitals are golden, giving a hint of the operatic glitz above ground.

Metro 1 was lengthened in 1973, to Mexikói út, with two stops added, and the total length is now 4.4kms. A small section of the tracks under Deák tér became redundant, and a lovely little museum was created there. You can still visit what is Budapest’s smallest museum, with an entrance from the underground passage. The entrance ticket is traditionally a tram ticket.

In the early ’60s, when metro construction reached Blaha Lujza tér, there appeared cracks in the building of the then National Theater. They chose to pull the building down in 1964, instead of careful renovation. That the aim of this was to “humiliate traditional, nonCommunist Hungarian culture” is an urban legend, reinforced in 2002 when a “commemorative artwork” was created in front of the New National Theater; a smaller version of the facade of the old building is shown in shallow water, in the company of three torches of mourning.

5. 3.

Building a new, Soviet style metro line was the dream of Communist dictator Mátyás Rákosi. Work started on building a pompous, grandiose entrance building at Népstadion station to impress people, but it was later destroyed. The metro in the 1950s was built with very primitive manual methods, using many horse-driven carts. The tubing was of iron, with the many pieces screwed together by hand.

The display in Metro 3 shows people when the last train left the station – most passengers agree that this is a totally useless piece of information nobody cares for. This line was built between 1970 and 1990. Originally the plans included a section to the Káposztásmegyer housing estate, though this was later cancelled. There are a series of artworks along the line, the least comprehensible of which was unveiled in 1996 at the Deák tér station: a gift from Lisbon, by the Portuguese artist Joao Vieira, hundreds of colored tiles show Hungarian poems in Portuguese and vice versa, including works by Sándor Petőfi and Fernando Pessoa, among others.

The antiquated lamps seen on the metro carriages were designed in the ’50s by some Russian designers who were obviously trained in the 1930s – there is distinct touch of Art Deco there: “a drop dripping from another drop”. They are gradually disappearing this year as the new Alstom Metropolis trains appear, at the rate of one per month. The new machines, unlike their antiquated Russian predecessors, are driverless and single-spaced, meaning you can walk from one end of the 100 meter long train to the other. Each trainset is capable of taking 1,023 passengers (209 seated), and the final unit is due for delivery in the spring of 2013.

Most experts seem to agree that Metro 4, which is dreadfully behind schedule, is too expensive, with its stations too near each other, but it is also very beautiful: it is worthy of a rich and quickly emerging European metropolis, the kind Budapest is dreaming to become. Between 2006 and 2010 the completion deadline was prolonged by one year every calendar year. It is now promised that it will open in 2014.

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Lifestyle 25

András Török’s Budapest

espite social changes in the last 22 years, Budapest is still not a very segregated city. In most of the inner neighborhoods it is quite difficult to imagine what kind of people live behind the particular windows. Below, you are invited on a short social safari, organized for interested expatriates. To peep behind the windows. To see people you wouldn’t normally meet. Pardon? Did you say that they could be spotted in your hometown as well? I hardly believe that. That mix, that hectic activity… That deep inclination to change things, at least in theory… This is typically a Budapest mix.

A June day in the life of Budapest A Semi-Public Agora at 8:44 a.m.

The dilapidated patchwork complex of Hungarian Radio takes up most of the block just behind the Museum Gardens. The Agora in question is deep inside an inner courtyard, an early 1950s glass-walled entrance pavilion, attached to an 1880s building. It is traditionally called “The Pagoda”, since the roof curves upwards at the sides, and on closer scrutiny it really does bear some resemblance to the Japanese genre. The place is in fact a sort of interface between the world outside and media folks. This is where the persons to be interviewed wait to be met by staff. The inside of the radio building is so impossibly complicated that no ordinary mortal would be able to find their way to the studios. But it is also the arena of the inner social life of a big media institution. An exchange of ideas, and a vessel of intrigue and of occasional solidarity. At 8:44 on a Thursday last week, the following persons were spotted: – One “young writer” over 40, who recently launched a literary program of his own; – Two male technicians chatting about horse racing tips; – A well-known lady reporter, looking ten years younger than her grandma age; – One assistant sound engineer sipping her coffee and musing about an unfortunate turn in her long history of marital strife; – A big, bearded bully of a man, talking over his mobile phone, turning towards the window, desperately trying to keep his conversation private (alas, with no success); – Three different people waiting for their appointments, looking disturbed and anxious. They must have been asked to come at quarter-to. As always, in the right corner there is the Old Lady Who Sells Books and Records, who also passes on messages on request. She does not like mobile phones, a devil’s invention, which makes her services more and more redundant.

Gay Budapest, 7:45 p.m.

The Scholar is struggling with an electric drill: is there a reinforced concrete pillar behind this bathroom wall? The Civil Servant is preparing some leftover dinner for his three unbecoming daughters, his almost only consolation in life. The Post Office Clerk is looking at his non-quartz-driven watch: another 15 long minutes until they close. The Doctor is reviewing the Photo-CD of his holiday – a medium he is overwhelmed by. The Actor is putting a substantial amount of makeup on his face: tonight he has to double his actual age. The Newsletter Publisher has just read the proofs of the obituary of Robin Gibb. The Music Teacher is pouring some beer into a glass of “secondary cleanliness” in his 8th story prefab flat in the outskirts of working class Pest. They are all expecting important phone calls – from very close friends. Twilight is slowly falling on a big town, looking a size bigger than it actually is. Anything can happen just this very evening. Noontime on Sunday, Buda and Pest

The scarce clientele of the refurbished fast food parlor in Móricz Zsigmond körtér, the one-time “House of Lords” hardly notices Sniper, who specializes in attacking trays temporarily left unguarded. The onetime famous Mozart soprano is laying the table in his modest Old Buda home with a magnificent view, for his youngest daughter, the visiting Sinologist from Heidelberg. The big, fair-haired lady civil servant is asking her only remaining adopted son to take a bottle a plum jam from the top shelf in her spacious Ferencváros larder. The legendary sausage vendor couple of the New Pest market are preparing to entertain their three bearded egghead sons with the best pork and beef available. The social scientist turned big businessman is parking his car in the garage of a big riverside hotel: he is coming to test brunch here, with his professional wife and son and daughter-in-law designate. The driver of bus No. 11 is unpacking his fried chicken and white bread from the aluminum-foil at the Batthyány tér terminus. The Houses of Parliament, over the river, are silent and overpowering. The Waitress with The Nicest, Non-Sexy Smile of the all-women restaurant in City Park is giving a thought to last night. A very nice one.

Egghead Budapest, 9:32 p.m.

The “Banker with the Bicycle” is leaving an alternative theater production in Újbuda, one she has collected funds for. The teenage-looking Slammer is sipping a glass of kadarka while sharing the glorious news with friends all over Facebook that the texts he had sent to his father’s monthly under a pen name were accepted for publication. The Grand Dame of antique studies is making another pencil mark in her dictionary of Homerian Vocabulary by Elisher and Frölich: she has spotted another mistake. She is going to have one too many classes tomorrow. The Enfant Terrible of literary criticism is undoing his ponytail on leaving the television studio, wondering why he is never invited to a live show. They aren’t afraid of a scandal, are they? The Wickedest Music Critic is entering a café opposite the Opera, and musing on the excellent oboe solo he is going to praise in the generally lousy and hopeless production. The emerging Papessa of Philosophy is completing the soft copy of an essay on an obscure idea of a trend-setting French thinker in her pretty head, now she only has to type it. The Poet of smooth, evocative rhymes and scholar of iconoclastic notions on auxiliary verbs is badly awaiting a call. There are vibrant, frustrated expectations all over town.

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András Török’s Budapest

Secrets of a great public library Some History: The building This former neo-Baroque palace was commissioned for Count Frigyes Wenckheim and his wife Krisztina, who were landowners and philanthropists. Designed by Artúr Meinig, it was completed in 1889 and displays Dresden Baroque styling on the outside, with Louis XV inside. With a 500-person ballroom, it was considered “court worthy” and Franz Joseph I attended events here. During the short-lived Communist dictatorship after WWI, the building was confiscated and became the base of the Carpenters’ Union. A “museum of the proletariat” was planned for the space, but never happened. In 2002 a thorough reconstruction of the palace was completed, including the addition of two annexes, which has proved to be a real success. City developers have listened to the pulse of Budapest, and combined the old and the new. Along the way, this library has become the centre of the Ervin Szabó Budapest Public Library system, which has 52 branches throughout the capital.

Where to leave your belongings Entering

Entering from the left side of the palazzo, from Reviczky utca, and you’ll arrive in a pretty atrium, which is a covered courtyard. You can sit here and have a coffee in the café in the former stables, or you can register to use the library for a day (you cannot get past the courtyard without registering). When the library first reopened, registration wasn’t necessary, but the homeless and kids hungry for Internet porn overcrowded the ground floor waiting section. The library is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. There are 15 reading rooms, and some 160 computers.

You can leave your belongings in the humanoperated cloakroom or in the lockers. The lockers are handier, but patrons almost always outnumber them. And some readers, immersed in their books, find they have forgotten the number of their locker, which leads to lengthy and loud scenes. If you use the cloakroom, you are confronted with the fee conundrum. How free is a free service? (Give HUF 100 anyway.) Real insiders outwit the system by visiting the lockers in a back room. To find it you have to cross the covered courtyard of the palazzo, and enter a spiral staircase in a cylinder-shaped part of the building, jut to the right to the cafeteria/former stables, and go down into a basement room.

A model that tells all

To really understand the library complex, look at the model that is in the new staircase to the left of the elevators. The two annexes are a late-19thcentury former residential building (to the bottom left) and a newly built eight-storey building (to the bottom right). In the periodicals section in the latter annex, the old spiral staircases from the storage space were ingenuously incorporated. The whole complex is a lively labyrinth, worth spending half a day exploring. Don’t miss the glitzy art-reading room or the gold and silver parlors

Lifestyle 23

rvin Szabó, an eminent librarian, social scientist and reformer, originally founded the Budapest Public Library in 1904 in the City Hall building. (It was one small room; a large photo of the very first library is exhibited on the second floor in the current building.) Plans for the erection of a grandiose modern building were swept away by WWI. In 1927 the city bought the palazzo of the Wenckheim Barons and in 1931 the library re-opened here. The 5-6,000 people who come here annually are likely to sit down and stay awhile. Most of the patrons are students, who tend to speak English. The terracotta palace facing the library’s main entrance is the music library, which has a special collection and sophisticated music listening facilities.

The palazzo part

The glitziest part of the library is the former ballroom and the smaller foyer, the “silver saloon” and the “golden saloon”, where there are comfortable armchairs that are instantly reserved by students who stay all day, most of them with a laptop of their own; modern devices that don’t really fit the environment. In some of the reading rooms there is highly ornamented oak paneling and some of the prettiest young ladies and middle-aged women. The latter are translators of literary works. They use the library as cafés, as the mid 20th century writer and wit, Jenő Heltai (cousin of Theodor Herzl, the Pest-born founder of Zionism) once explained in an oft-cited definition: “You are not at home, but you don’t have to be outdoors in the open air”.

How to check out a book

Either pick up a book and go to the check out section, or you can do it through the website of the library (www.fszek.hu) Then you have to sit down and wait. In 30-45 minutes you should see the last four digits of your library card displayed on the notice board (also in the reading rooms). If not, the book you wanted is lost, or you did something wrong! Since 2011 there have been mysterious checkout machines. Don’t ask how it operates. Every time I am there I have to learn it anew. Luckily there are always helpful ladies around.

The ordinary old part

The ordinary old part, overlooking Reviczky utca, a former residential block from the 1880s, was added during the facelift of 1998-2002. There are a series of reading rooms, one on top of the other, with a handy reference library in each. On the floor there are sockets for your laptop. The nicest specialized reading room (also the closest to the heart of the author of this column) is on the top floor – it is called the Budapest Collection. Apart from the books and photographs, there is always a changing exhibition on its walls. If you enter this (or, indeed, any of the reading rooms), you are supposed to leave your library card with the reference librarian.

The new part

The latest part, completed in 1998, is a contrasting modern building in the style of the 1990s. It contains the free shelves, where you can browse and take any of the books to check them out. The connection between the palazzo and the new part is on the second floor. The wooden floor with its bombastic patterns is a bit over the top, and bears the signs of mild “moral obsolescence”. All over the library there are card operated copying machines. You can buy cards at the cahier on the ground floor.

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Lifestyle 23

AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IN HUNGARY

A ndrás Török’s Budapest Seven Memorials in Kossuth Square that May Have to Leave WORK, TIME OF ERECTION

1944

2011

PROBABLE CHANGE

Gyula Andrássy, 1906

✔

re-erection

István Tisza 1934

✔

re-erection

Prince Rákóczi 1935

✔

no change

Lajos Kossuth original 1927

✔

re-erection, (of a copy?)

Lajos Kossuth (new) 1952

✔

Removal to Statue park?

Mihály Károlyi 1975

✔

Removal to another quality venue would be a compromise, unlikely today

Attila József 1980

✔

Removal to another quality venue, or simply staying

Memorial of the Fusillade of 25 October 1956, 1991

✔

Flame of the Revolution 1996

✔

Re-erection somewhere else?

Bullets in the he Wall, 2001

✔

Staying

ungary has a long history of erecting, destroying and re-erecting statues of politicians. The establishment of the Statue Park in 1993 seemed to put an end to such exercises. To the surprise of many, the Hungarian government recently passed a decision on the reconstruction of Kossuth square, where the Houses of Parliament are situated. With a deadline of May 31, 2014, it is partly a practical decision, allowing the building of an underground garage and a visitor’s center so that, in a year or two, tourists will not have to queue outdoors. But it was another part of the plan that stirred dissent. One sentence referred to returning to square to its status “of 1944”. That means that some of statues, which were not there in that year, will presumably have to go. Some others will have to return. Here we summarizes the status quo then and now, and look at the existing public monuments.

ATTILA JÓZSEF (1905-1937)

Removal?

ATTILA JÓZSEF

The statue of the lowborn, short-lived poetic genius was put here, since one of his greatest poems is entitled At the Danube. A line from this poem, in his own handwriting, appears in front of the figure: “As if poured from the dark heart in my body / the Danube ran, as grand and wise and muddy,” (in a quite inadequate rendering by one of many translators). Artist Laszló Marton found an un-heroic posture of the lean poet of fiery countenance. Natives and tourists love him as it is, and where it is. To remove this statue is clearly unimaginable. The internet is afire with protests, at the time of going to press. But there is a problem here, too: Attila is almost exactly on the spot where the memorial of Gyula Andrássy used to be. It was removed after WWII, for unclear political reasons. He was a hero of 1848, then prime minister from 1867, initiator of many Budapest city projects, then foreign minister of Austria-Hungary. True, though, he was a count.

OBER FUSILLADE THE MEMORIAL OF THE 25 OCT

THE MEMORIAL OF THE 25 OCTOBER FUSILLADE

This was originally a sort of tomb of the unknown revolutionary, designed by the celebrated architect Imre Makovecz, but later elements were added, notably a copper relief, a flag with a hole where the communist emblem used to be, and a constantly changing text. Ordinary Hungarian citizens would hardly miss it, but the 1956 organizations probably would.

LAJOS KOSSUTH MIHÁLY KÁROLYI

BÉLA KOVÁCS

LAJOS KOSSUTH (1802-1894)

Kossuth was an almost mythical, larger than life figure of the 1848-49 Revolution and War of Independence, who lived the long second part of his life in exile. He only returned to Hungary in a coffin. As long as his great adversary, the Emperor Francis Joseph, was alive, erecting a public statue to Kossuth was out of the question. The Emperor died in 1916, and the original statue of Kossuth was unveiled here in 1927. He, together with fellow cabinet members, was portrayed at the moment of fall, with head down. The work of János Horvay was considered too pessimistic after the Communist coup d’état, and a new memorial was commissioned. The Kossuth of the present statue by Sándor Mikus is a sort of “proto-communist”, indicating the right direction: forward! Re-erecting the old statue would certainly be possible. But it was long ago donated to the city of Dombóvár, in southeast Hungary, and the citizens love it there. Indeed, they are collecting signatures for a petition to keep it. A copy of the original work would do, wouldn’t it?

MIHÁLY KÁROLYI (1875-1955)

BÉLA KOVÁCS (1908-1959)

Mihály Károlyi was a well meaning, daydreaming aristocrat, and the first prime minister of Hungary after the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy fell apart in 1918. Today, he is held responsible (by the far right, not scholars!) for the short-lived communist dictatorship that followed his rule, and even for the post-war Trianon treaty, so much so that the removal of the statue of “The Traitor” has been a constant demanded from some factions. Meanwhile, some more mainstream political forces respect him as the father of modern democratic Hungary. A serious problem is that his monument was erected almost exactly on the spot where the memorial of his great opponent István Tisza, the prime minister during WWI, used to stand. It was removed after WWII.

Béla Kovács was a talented and successful farmer, also interested in national matters, and after WWII he was secretary general of the strongest grouping in Parliament, the Hungarian Smallholders’ Party. On 25 February 1947 he was arrested on fabricated charges, and deported to the Soviet Union, a clear sign about what kind of a “democracy” Hungary could expect in the Red-Army-dominated country. Though everyone respects the memory of Béla Kovács, it is difficult to overlook the very low quality of the statue. Apparently there was no contest at all. If there was, Sándor Kligl’s design must have been chosen by the then “big boss” of the Smallholders’ Party, a man of notoriously bad taste. So few people would mind the removal of this particular monument of Béla Kovács – provided a more fitting statue to him were erected somewhere else.

TION THE FLAME OF THE REVOLU THE BULLETS ON THE WALL

THE FLAME OF THE REVOLUTION

This minimalist monument by artist Mária Lugossy was built for the 40th anniversary of the revolution – it did not stir sentiments, either positive or negative. The small flame burns with extra force between October 23 and November 4 every year. It certainly was not here in 1944, so it probably must go. To put it somewhere else may make sense.

THE BULLETS ON THE WALL

The terrible random shooting on October 25, 1956 broke out without warning, and there is no evidence to this very day as to the identity of the shooters or the people who gave the orders. We don’t even know what nationality the killers were. One of the persons who escaped was architect Ferenc Callmeyer. He and artist József Kampfl designed this metaphoric monument to the victims – one that could badly do with some more detailed explanatory text. Needless to say, the bullets were much smaller, but big enough to kill hundreds of people here. It belongs to the square, and though it was definitely not here in 1944, nobody expects it to be removed.

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Lifestyle 25

american chamber of commerce in hungary

A ndrás Törö k’s Budapest A SAUNA WITH A VIEW

Seven Delicacies For Expats Who Think They Have Seen Everything

udapest expats will have many visitors – friends and relatives who had already been here. They are rarely surprised. They say that the city has preserved the old, humane qualities of the past better than many others, where development has swept the past away. They still remember staircases badly needing renovation, locksmiths’ workshops with wooden floors and the smell of oil, and small suburban family-run restaurants. They are still fascinated by the grand riverbank architecture, and the beauty of the three bridges in the middle of the Danube. Here are a few ideas to impress returning visitors with.

Since 2007 you can visit the incredible war hospital under Castle Hill, which was operational in 1944/45 and again in 1956. Later it was developed into a secret nuclear shelter. It is “furnished” with dozens of dummies in period uniforms, complete with authentic equipment. The one-hour tour gives a great introduction into war hardships and medical emergencies. You can also laugh, hearing the story of how, as late as the 1980s, they still secretly delivered fuel in a camouflaged milk truck.

facade and the structure from 1911; and the gallery level from 2011. The right order for exploring is to look at it from 200 meters away, to browse in the bookshop, buy something and sit down with a coffee (speed of service is proportionate with your distance from the counter!), then go upstairs to see the used books and the artwork mixed with rare, mainly art deco furniture. The glass rooms at the very top (in place of the alleged of ice rink of the inter-war period) may soon be rented. They are fighting for the necessary permissions right now.

(I. Lovas út 4/c, www.sziklakorhaz.hu)

(VI. Andrássy út 39)

A HOUSE TO TASTE THREE DIFFERENT CENTURIES

A COPY OF PALAZZO STROZZI

A mix of feelings and flavors: from 1883 (the ballroom, now the Alexandra Book Café); the

style of the conservative ruling élite. That slowly changed, and by the mid-30s even the higher ranks of the Catholic church could not dissociate themselves from the latest trends. The bell tower in particular has become an iconic landmark – it had to be built some meters away from the church itself, as a little underground river (fittingly called “Devil’s Ditch”) runs there. (XII. Csaba utca 5)

(Oxygen Wellness, I. Czakó utca 2-4., entrance from Naphegy utca, www.naphegy.oxygenwellness.hu)

A SHOP THAT SELLS PIPES, PEARLS AND MAHJONG

Many have already heard about a business dealing in pipes and pearls set up in 1880, which was forced into a flat in Haris köz

Oktogon tér (square), with a wedding parlor on the ground floor, is a smaller, but almost exact copy of Palazzo Strozzi, in Firenze, the favorite building of Count Géza Batthyány, who owned the site, and who commissioned the eminent architect Alajos Hauszmann (of New York Palace fame.) The architect was used to peculiar requests, so he did not object.

HOSPITAL IN THE ROCK

slope of The district called Tabán (on the northern but the s, 1930 the in n dow d Gellért Hill) was pulle zed. A reali r neve were there ned plan ls hote new is to be large, white fitness center completed in 2010In the na. Vien to rway moto the of right just d foun ló Szerwords of architects Zoltán Szász and Lász from the up ing com rock a as ed shap is “it lyi: dahe es, facad main s ing’ build the hillside. Its side walls, to the g rdin acco es angl rent diffe at ed truct are cons a castle, situation of surrounding buildings — Bud ing exist and — ge Brid beth Elisa and della the Cita to ic mag cially Espe ” es. rout and planned transport e. ertim wint in a saun the from out look

Budapest has always been a city of copies – that is why tourists tend to find it so charming. Few Budapesters know that the building off

(VI. Teréz körút 13)

fic Theater Uránia Hungarian Scienti

A CINEMA IN MOORISH REVIVAL STYLE

The Venetian Gothic and Oriental Moorish building opened as a cabaret, then later operated as the Uránia Hungarian Scientific Theater. For years, lectures and slideshows were held here. (You can see some surviving slides on the website.) It was converted to project films in 1917, and became a proper cinema in 1930. Though cinemas were privatized after 1990, the Uránia became an exception: in the late 1990s it was “re-nationalized”. After a total reconstruction, it reopened in 2002 as the Uránia National Motion Picture House. It is only (reasonably) full when there are opera broadcasts from abroad. (VIII. Rákóczi út 21, www.urania-nf.hu).

“GOD’S GARAGE”

That was the condescending nickname some Catholic opinion leaders attached to the magical classic modern church by Aladár and Bertalan

Árkay, father and son (completed in 1936). After WWI there was a step back in progressive architecture, with neo-Baroque the favored

during the Communist terror. It may, however, have caught fewer eyes when the shop moved to Régiposta utca. It is now run by Viktor Zollner, the founder’s great-great-grandson. Pipes can be ordered online (who would do such a thing?), and a commercial from 1945 can be viewed on the website. These days there are two new business lines: mah-jong and walking sticks… (V. Régiposta utca 7-9, www.gallwitz.hu — unfortunately in Hungarian only.)

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Lifestyle 29

american chamber of commerce in hungary

A ndrás Törö k’s Budapest at Pedestrian Bridge 11) (20 os ny má Lágy

a new building The least realistic vision for sef Finta, and Józ is another brainchild of Dr. Minister of by r yea s thi lier was leaked ear ás Fellegi. It is a Economic Development Tam pping center sho a h wit ed bin footbridge com ányosi bridges, between Petőfi and Lágym er and the art Qu m niu llen linking the Mi end of it there is one (At . pus cam y rsit unive er, in the evening oth the at , day life during the a crucial point.) ing as one critic observed, hitt that aims at a ion vis y onl the This one maybe . ded target that is not even nee

Budapest Unbuilt: Seven Ambitious Developments Cancelled in the Last 12 Years, or likely to be in the Next

uch has altered in Budapest since the change in political system, but not every great city project was destined for success. When Gabor Demszky first took office in 1990 as the then freshly elected Mayor of Budapest, he found a city without any major development plans. A scheme to build a National Theater was launched as a joint project by the then national government and the city. Few expected that it would become the first in a long line of aborted developments. Between 1995 and 2002 big projects seemed to become something of an off-Broadway theater of the main political battleground. Between 2002 and 2010 a new phase emerged: “thinking big, but acting low”, combined with a global crisis towards the end. Since 2010 an entirely new phase has been outlined: “Ultra-Big Projects Nobody Believes in”.

Museum Quarter behind the Western Station (2010)

The Andrássy Quarter idea was all the more surprising since it clearly conflicts with another vision for a museum quarter in the area behind the Western Station, outlined by Budapest’s Fidesz-backed Mayor István Tarlós. It is unlikely that this (admittedly slightly more realistic) vision will ever be put on paper in detail. Even if it is, it will hardly find its way into the budget, especially not in the next three years, the remaining tenure of the Mayor in this election cycle. The idea was the brainchild of prolific architect Dr. József Finta, who, as he admitted to the author of this column, thought it realistic that it might be realized in 15 years’ time.

“Last Ruin in the Castle” Extension (1995-2009)

Only the ground floor of the mediocre building that once housed the Ministry of Defense survived the siege of 1944/45. About a dozen ideas and detailed development projects have been proposed in the last 30 years. The last of them was cancelled in 2009, despite the fact that about HUF 8 billion of EU money had been earmarked to realize it. The reason: there was no clear function important enough to warrant the site, and the modern parts never harmonized well enough to please the ultra conservative tastes of the Castle population. The solution may be the demolition of the worthless old parts, and the erection of a neo-conservative new pavilion, one that would reflect elements of the Royal Palace, a la the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery in London. The Government Quarter (2007-2008)

The great dream of the government of 2006-2009 was the complete relocation of all the ministries. After a series of tenders, an international jury chose a site and design. Péter Janesch, the iconoclastic underdog of the “architects’ guild”, never actually got to build his huge green building with a garden on the walls, and many gates for the particular ministries. No company was prepared to build and operate it for decades at what the government deemed a reasonable price.

Last Ruin in the Castle Extension

New City Hall (20 06-2010)

New City Hall (2010)

The Mayor’s office is housed in an 18th century old soldiers’ home, later a barracks. It was originally planned as a complete square, but the then city council would not let any part of the city wall be destroyed. The site proved to have something of a curse looming over it. World War Two swept away the first attempt to build a new and worthy City Hall, then there were successive building contests, the last two in 2006 (for the surrounding area) and 2008 (for a few new buildings and renovation of the landmark sites). The latter, won by Erick van Eggeraat and his office, was an exemplary blend of the old and the new. It was silently dropped by the current city administration because of a lack of money, and the fear it would generate too much traffic.

) tern Station (2010in and behind Wes Museum Quarter

Museum of Fine Arts Extension (2009-2011)

Andrássy Museum Quarter (2011-2021)

The cancellation that most shock the cultural world was that of the long-awaited extension of the Fine Arts Museum, a great success story of the last several years. It clearly needs a new wing, but Heroes’ Square, Budapest Zoo, and the old Metro One (Yellow Line) limit options. An underground design by János Karácsony was chosen, and even that was modified after landmark preservation crusaders attacked it heavily. The surprise at the cancelation was all the more as only 15% of the costs were going to come from Hungarian sources, and general director László Baán was a well known right wing backbencher. The reason for cancelling was not scarce funds, but a “grander vision”.

A week after the cancellation of the Fine Arts Museum project a press conference leaked the “grand vision”: to build a new wing of the museum behind the Műcsarnok, and move the collection of the National Gallery to another new building along City Park. Also involved would be the building of a new photo museum, and perhaps a museum of ethnography. A Museum Mile development, if you like, christened the “Andrássy Quarter”. All this in an austerity period expected to last years (or decades?) No serious person believes in the realization of this vision, since the whole development would cost about HUF 104 billion (at conservative estimates).

Museum of Fine Ar ts Extension