F. Mentényi Klára szerk.: Műemlékvédelmi Szemle 1999/1-2. szám Az Országos Műemléki Felügyelőség tájékoztatója (Budapest, 1999)
MŰHELY - Morvay Endre: Parisiana, a poraiból feltámadt főnix
konstruierte Lajta ein streng konsequentes System. Dessen Schlüssel ist jene Proportion, die zwischen der Diagonale des Quadrats und dessen Seite besteht, also 2:1. Neben den proportionellen Zusammenhängen bestanden zwischen den einzelnen Motiven der Fassade auch Bezüge hinsichtlich der Maße. Die Änderung der Proportionen auf der neuen Fassade läßt sich nicht nur mit Messungen, sondern bereits mit bloßem Blick feststellen. Die Fassade des 1990 fertiggestellten Theaters ist ein selbständiges architektonisches Werk unter Verwendung der Fassadenmotive von Béla Lajta mit anderen Proportionen. Endre MORVAY PARISIANA - A PHOENIX RISEN FROM THE DUST The turn of the century Budapest fashion was the music-hall, variety. Foreign artist played on the stages, beauty contest were organised. The owner of the Parisiana had built with Béla Lajta on the site of Two Saracens street (today 35 th Ede Paulay street) a new, imposing music hall. The building with its special type of facade and interior design became a precious work of turn of the century Budapest. Lajta gave an organic appearance to the building, with the main characteristic of the expressive linear break on the large flat surface and that grandiose play with the surfaces and forms. Lajta was starting his career as a follower of Lechner's Hungarian art nouveau. His earlier works were mainly religious buildings. The change of subject made him possibly change his way of expression, instead of tragic he had to create something very joyful and he could not use motifs of folk art for the decoration of an urban music hall. The art nouveau traditions were connected with constructive, geometric forms and expressive methods. It is almost unbelievable how his work was destroyed by the change of taste and as a result of financial purposes: as early as in 1912 it was turned to a Dance Palace, its bizarre furniture (Miklós Menyhért) and wall paintings (Dezső Kölber, Manó Vesztróczy) were very differently appreciated. In 1919 it was changed to a theatre, and in place of the tables rows of seats were put. In 1921 it was again rebuilt according to the needs of Lujza Blaha Theatre working there. The facade was further destroyed in the 1950's, when windows were opened in it, and original architecture was replaced with poor materials. In 1962 with pulling down the attic wall a new glass cover was built with iron construction and entrance doors. In 1987 the leadership of the capital decided to reconstruct the original form of the facade of Parisiana. On the basis of the documents the reconstruction was finished in 1990, and a theatre is working in the building presently. The Museum of Architecture organised an exhibition in 1991, presenting the planning of the newly built theatre, together with the documents of the facade reconstruction (art historian: Ferenc Dávid, architects: Péter Wagner and Frigyes König).
