The Budapest100 festival celebrates the 100-year-old buildings of the Hungarian capital since 2011 and it is maybe the most exciting event that brings local people closer to their city. “Every building is interesting” – as their motto says. We agree!
Our name was not inspired by them, but we are big fans of the festival as we are always interested in the secret stories of Budapest. Every year beautiful houses open up for a weekend for the public and you get to see hidden gems, learn their history and participate in many different events from concerts to wine tastings.
This year we were quite busy with work but we managed to check out one house: 13 Horánszky street. The lights were not the best to take pictures of the façade, but check it out here – you can even see the greenhouse on top of the building! As it belongs to a private apartment, we couldn’t visit it, but they built it in the Hungarian art nouveau style, “szecesszió”, and it is said that its ornamentation includes marble, turquoise-gold mosaics and beautiful lead glass. If I could go back in time I would want to see the splendour of Budapest before WWI, when so many of these opulent buildings were built just as family homes. It is also fascinating to think about that now these houses look very classy, but a hundred years ago they were absolutely modern – the owners took the risk and hired a sometimes controversial architect of the era because they believed in art. I always wonder how our grandchildren will see the buildings we build today…
This house was built in 1912 and it survived wars, communism, and a revolution. Each and every building like this has stories that could fill up a book. It is a never-ending adventure to discover them all, and we enjoy this journey more than anything. Join us on a private tour of Budapest and we make sure to see some of these beauties from the inside!
