The chronicle of Eger Tobacco Factory

The cigar factory

József Vendt, Endre Liber, Pál Sümegi, Kálmán Truksz, Virgil Szilágyi, Henrik Czigler, Román Boltizár, Gyula Ernyei Szabó around 1900

On 13 November 1896, the morning after the topping-out ceremony, István Staud himself lit a Short Hungarian Cigar after he had taken a snifter of brandy to remedy his hangover and made himself comfortable in his armchair. Opposite him, in wooden frames, hung the simple plans of the buildings to be erected in the second phase of the construction of Eger Tobacco Factory The production building, the wood-structured raw tobacco stores requiring elaborate carpentry work, as well as the pump room were yet to be built. Dearest to István Staud’s heart was the proportionate, shapely water tower whose symmetry and simple lines seemed to call for a sculptor’s work rather than a bricklayer’s. The drawing of the water tower was hung in the middle of the wall, surrounded by the other plans, the same way the buildings were to be erected eventually. Sunk in reverie, Mr Staud gazed at the drawings when, with a soft rustle, the ashes of his cigar drifted to the ground. He then stood up, stubbed out his cigar and hurried out of his office. He tossed his cloak over his shoulders with such a heave that the papers he scattered produced the effect of a small snowstorm. As if a magician had waved his wand, in the following two years the buildings were quietly and perfectly completed.