Albert Kalman Korossy. The Walko Haus. Outside AND Inside.

The Walko Haus by Albert Kalman Korossy was built in 1901.  It sits at Aulich utca 3.  The beautiful mosaics and sculpture are by Geza Maroti, one of Budapest's most important sculptors. The figure is Eve.  

The figure is Eve, and below her is a veritable garden of Eden, filled with flowers and plants and animals.

 

Squirrels, birds feeding their young, frogs, rabbits, peacocks (So Art Nouveau), and even a snake  One could (and has) looked at it many time and continue to find details.

Almost every time I go by this building, I tell Tony how much I wish I could see inside,

Well, I was taking photos the other day (and trying to peek inside), when someone came out of the building.  I asked if I could step inside and take a photo and to my absolute shock she said yes.  So here it is.  Beautifully organic in so many ways.

From the flowered tile made to resemble a carpet.

The floral stucco decorations.

 

The stairway column, carved to look like its growing  out of the building.

And the railings that look like twigs.

The room is like a bower.

We were so excited, we took ourselves out to a great lunch at Klassz.

#WalkoHaus
#AlbertKalmanKorossy
#ArtNouveau
#Budapest
#Klassz

Prater ut: A HIstory of Budapest in One Street

Prater ut is a street located near Corvin Negyed, also called Corvin Lane, connects with Ferenc Korut.  In the early 1900s, when the first houses were built this area would have been on the outskirts of the city.  At the head of the street is a beautiful building by Kalman Karossy, who built the beautiful Art Nouveau house that was the subject of my first blogpost during this trip to Budapest.  This building is not as grand, but it is nevertheless lovely, and shows the ambitions of Hungarian citizens.

Very near the Karossy building is one of the most charming monuments in Budapest: a depiction of the novel The Paul Street Boys, written by Ferenc Molnar in 1906.  It is one of the most beloved novels in Hungary, telling the story of The Paul Street gang of boys who fight for an empty lot in their neighborhood, which they call "The Fatherland," and defend their ground against another gant called the RedShirts.  It is a novel which had special relevance for Hungarians both in World War II and in the 1956 Rebellion. 

Turning to the other side of the street, one sees buildings that have been damaged in particularly violent ways.  The area around the beginning of Prater ut was one of the places where some of the heaviest fighting during the 1956 rebellionn took place.  And it was here that particularly young men, many of whom were students, gathered to fight and defend.  The bullet holes are still apparent.

Proceeding down Prater ut one finds older buildings that escaped bullets but were still the victims of age and disrepair.  Nevertheless, as one looks carefully, she can find hints of the decorative richness of these houses.

Leda and the Swan

Bricks designed as faces

Back at the begining of Prater ut, in Corvin Lane, one finds many memorials to those killed in 1956.  The young boy at the beginning of this post is one of them.

#Prater ut  #Kalman Korossy #Paul Street Boys #Hungarian Revolution 1956 #decaying Budapest buildings

The Perfect Art Nouveau House (Or, a cure for feeling discombobulated in Budapest)

We arrived over a week ago, but when we got here we were pretty discombobulated: the product of all the stress of buying a condo, fixing our house, living with workers, trying to pack, plus jet lag and general fatigue.  As a remedy we went on a walk on Varosligeti Fasor, which is a small street where very rich people built summer villas.  This one by Kalman Karossy is one of my favorites.  Indeed, it ticks al the boxes for the perfect Art Nouveau Villa.

It is highly decorated but nonetheless restrained.

It has a peacock, the ultimate Art Nouveau symbol.

It has a beautiful gate.

And Korossy built it for himself, a fact he acknowledges in the top of the facade.

It reminds me of why I love the architecture of this city so much, and how it lives up to repeated views.

#Budapest
#VarosligetiFasor
#KalmanKorossy
#ILoveBudapest