Page 117 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Budapest

AROUND P ARLIA MENT  115

tendrils and icons taken from
nature. The bees climbing up
the gable walls represent the
bank’s activity and the pinna cles,
which look like hives, re present
the accumulation of savings.
These features were intended
to help make the function of
the building accessible to the
people who banked here.
The building is not officially
open to the public, but it is
possible to see the Cashiers’ Hall
during office hours.
6 Central European
University
Közép-Európai Egyetem
Nádor utca 9. Map 2 E5 (10 D2).
Tel (06 1) 327 30 00. q Kossuth Lajos
tér. ∑ ceu.hu
This Neo-Classical palace on
Nádor utca, in the direction of
Széchenyi Square, was built in
1826 by Mihály Pollack for
Beautiful Secession interior of the Post Office Savings Bank Prince Antal Festetics. Since
1993 it has housed the Central
of the square commem orating Approaching the Post Office European University (CEU).
the Red Army soldiers who died Savings Bank, one can see Founded by financier and
during the siege of Budapest in glimpses of the details that philanthropist George Soros,
1944–5. A second statue is to the have made this building one of who was born in Budapest,
US general Harry Hill Bandholtz. Pest’s most unusual sights. The CEU is a global institution of
He led the allied forces that construction methods, interior graduate education in the social
thwarted the Romanian troops design and exterior detailing sciences, the humanities, law,
looting the Hungarian National of the building are remarkable. management, environmental
Museum. Also on the square is Lechner commis sioned the tiles studies, government and public
the Ronald Reagan Statue by used in the design, including policy, with students from over
István Máté, which was errected the vibrant roof tiles, from the 100 countries, and a faculty
on the day of the former US Zsolnay factory (see p58). The drawn from major universities
president’s 100th birthday to façades are decorated with floral across the world.
honour the important role the
Reagan administration played in
the collapse of Communism. The American Embassy
This beautiful house, at No. 12 Liberty
Square, was designed by Aladár
5 Post Office Kálmán and Gyula Ullmann and built
Savings Bank between 1899–1901. The façade is
decorated with bas-reliefs featuring
Postatakarék Pénztár motifs typical of the Secession style.
Hold utca 4. Map 2 E4 (10 D1). By the entrance to the embassy
q Kossuth Lajos tér. is a plaque with an image of the
Catholic Primate, Cardinal Joseph Plaque commemorating
A masterpiece by Ödön Mindszenty, who was part of the Joseph Mindszenty
Lechner, the former Post Office movement seeking to liberate
Savings Bank was built between Hungary from the Communists after World War II. He was
1900–1901. Chiefly a Secession imprisoned by the regime in 1949 and was mistreated for
architect, Lechner (see p58) many years. Released during the 1956 uprising, he asked for
combined the curvi linear motifs political asylum in the embassy. He lived here for 15 years
of that style with motifs from in internal exile until, in 1971, the Vatican finally convinced
Hungarian folk art to produce a him to leave Hungary.
unique visual style for his work.

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