Post Office Savings Bank (Postatakarekpenztar), Budapest

1 more image

On a quiet leafy street near the Parliament you will discover an art nouveau masterpiece in the form of the Postal Savings Bank. The colours of its facade have faded a bit, and the glint has been lost a little from its fretted ballusters, but it's still a marvel. The building was the work of the Hungarian architect Ödön Lechner, responsible also for the fanciful, green-capped Museum of Applied Arts, as well as numerous other stand-out building across Budapest and Hungary. The Postal Savings Bank, however, is often considered to be the best example of his work.

This four-storey, triple facade building functions as a bank to this day. The building in Hungarian secession style was built in 1900 and is the work of the great master of that style Ödön Lechner and of Sándor Baumgarten. The building opens onto narrow streets, so Lechner designed a relatively unornamented facade but a stunning cornice and roof decoration, which was made by the Zsolnay Ceramics Factory of Pécs. The facade of the Post Savings Bank, the roof construction with its majolica ornamentation, and the design of the staircase and halls present a homogenous picture to the last detail, even after major reconstruction of the interior. Ödön Lechner fashioned the offices with modest but artistic care and first-class technology. The Hungarian Royal Post Savings Bank began operation on 1st February, 1886. Tenders were invited for its headquarters in 1900, and the building was finished a year and a half later in late 1901, becoming one of the most valued works of the founder of the Hungarian secession style.

www.vendegvaro.hu

Architecture and the art at the turn of the 19/20 centuries are typified by the pioneering spirit of the time. Art Nouveau using motifs taken from Hungarian folk art, produced true gems of Budapest's architetural heritage. Its most eminent representative is Odon Lechner, who designed several buildings in the capital. His plan won first prize in the competition to design the Post Office Savings Bank.