Szablyár Péter: Step by step - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2010)
Spiral stairs cast in iron
The flood of 1838 had a great impact on long-term city planning in Buda and Pest. A total of 2281 houses collapsed in the deluge (mostly adobe edifices), 827 houses were damaged by extensive cracking and only 1146 survived intact. That was when it was resolved that street levels by the river be raised to 30 feet. The use of earthen walls was banned and the construction of fire-walls mandated together with the use of fire-resistant roofing and the addition of stairs and hallways. Alongside the drawing up of overall development plans, the levelling of streets (the adjustment of pitch) was also stipulated. The Beautification Committee commissioned architect Antal Giba (1810-19) and municipal engineer Jakab Dégen (1822) to carry out the task until 1870. The job whose continuation was necessitated by extensive construction work was taken over by architect Ferenc Doletsko between 1863 and 1871 (spending 16 thousand forints on the project). Walking along the streets parallel to the Danube bank we can get to the gates of a number of 19th century houses via some stairs. These depressed sections of the pavement mark the original street levels of the district. Most of these small steps functioning as markers of street levels can be found in Döbrentei utca, Fő utca and around Battyhány tér. At 15 Döbrentei utca the "low-level experience” is enhanced by the plaque indicating the water levels of the 1838 floods, bearing an inscription in Cyrillic as well as Latin letters reminiscent of the Serbian inhabitants of the Tabán, also known as Rácváros (Serbian Town). "Red white and green — our soil it’s always been" or, the "national stairs” leading to the "chapel of the catacomb of the Hungarian rosette” Whichever busy thoroughfare we choose to reach Orczy tér by, a characteristic building will catch our eye from afar as we approach our destination. The large edifice stands out of its environment owing to its striking general appearance, its redbrick facing and Hungary’s national colours of fitting dimensions on its top. Soon we find ourselves standing outside the multifunctional Orczy Forum City Centre. The dilapidated environment surrounding it, the flow of badly unorganised traffic across the busy level crossing nearby, and the fluctuating crowds of pedestrians passing by provide an unworthy external setting for this complex of buildings that was constructed over a period of eight years (1998—2006). In an enclosed square among the buildings is a hillock topped with a welded steel structure in the shape of a cross; hiding beneath this is a chapel to which the visitor can descend by way of a set of stairs painted in the Hungarian tricolour. The less than a decade old complex stirred up a heated debate within the profession of Hungarian architects while the project was still underway. 69
