F. Mentényi Klára szerk.: Műemlékvédelmi Szemle 1998/1. szám Az Országos Műemléki Felügyelőség tájékoztatója (Budapest, 1998)
MŰHELY - Horváth Hilda: Az Emmer-palota
Hilda HORVÁTH THE EMMER PALACE In Buda, in the district called Water City (Víziváros) is standing a house on the Danube bank, where Kornél Emmer, the richest magistrate of the capital and his family used to live. Kornél Emmer (1845-1910), jurist and politician was busy in the political life of the capital and the country at the turn of the century. He was one of the founders and the first president of the Hungarian Philosophical Society. He was author of several legal works and his knowledge and field of interest could be felt in his works and his home as well. Kornél Emmer, the rich citizen of Budapest had left an upper middleclass palace and interiour in accordance with the taste of the period. In the palace buildings of the last third of the 19th century in Budapest the wealth and representation of the aristocracy and upper middle-classes had manifested itself in the exteriour and interior planning of the buildings. The Emmer palace, built together with a lodging house, was planned by Artúr Meinig in 1885, a favourite architect of the age of German origin. On the basis of the archive photos in the collection of the Dokumentation Department of the Museum of Applied Arts several interiours of the palace could be reconstructed. Similarly to the facade the furnishing is also eclectic: each room had a different atmosphere and characteristic: beside the salon in Neorococo style - where musical concerts were also held -, the parlour is in Oriental style. The staircase recalls the Gothic of the turn of the 14-15 th century, like the library as well. This room is showing the influence of English decorative art. The interiour decoration of the Emmer palace is characterized by that kind of eclecticism, wich was determining the interiours in the last decades of the 19 th century. In the Und World War the building was hit by a bomb and the damages were not renovated, as it could be seen even today on the exteriour. There was no important change in the interiours until the widow of the builder had lived in the house (1949). After her death several objects were taken to the Museum of Applied Arts in 1950 from the bequest. The building became a monument in 1965, when it was used by the Ministry of Interior. The scientific documentation of the building was made in 1990.
