The Intense Pleasure of Entering (or Sneaking Into) an Art Nouveau House

The last two days, Tony and I went to two Budapest areas we were familiar with but with addresses of houses we hadn't known about.  (It makes me wonder how many other treasures still await discovery.)  Two were by architects we were already liked, and we were lucky (really lucky) to be able to get inside one of each.  It is wonderful to see these buildings from the street, but it is even more  remarkable to see how the designs carries into the interior.

This building on Dembinsky ut 44 in the VII, for example, is by one of my most favorite architects--Gyula Fodor.  Fodor specialized in high-quality apartment buildings, you can search for more examples  on the blog.

This building's exterior  has many beautiful Art Nouveau details, including children and owls (both familiar Art Nouveau motifs). 

The children appear both on the outside and the inside:

(The sculptor is probably Simon Neys who did the work on his other buildings.)  

The tiles  of the floors (here sadly decrepit) are meant to resemble oriental carpets.

The entrance is imposing.

 The other building we saw both inside and  outside was by the Hungarian architects I first learned to love:  Marcell Komor and Dezso Jakab.  This one, probably the last one unseen by me in Budapest, is on Csengery utca 76.  

Komor and Jakab were students of the great Odon Lechner, and you can see the Hungarian national Secessionist style in their work.

The ornaments resemble Transylvanian motifs, especially embroidery, because Lechner thought that Hungarian traditions remained most fully alive in Transylvania.

To see, for the first time, another Komor and  Jakab building is a tremendous thrill.  (There may be no more new ones for me to see.)  But to see its inside makes it even more meaningful.

#BudapestArtNouveau

#GyulaFodor

#MarcellKomor

#Dezso Jakab

#ArtNouveauInteriors