Szablyár Péter: Step by step - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2010)

Stairs inside and stairs outside - the Kilényi Villa

■ The Kilényi Villa, when it itill itood outiide the entrance to the Tunnel

Iy cut-out space used as a car park is an escarpment where the homeless take up their abode when the trees have turned green. Few would think that the small mansion, lavish even in its modesty, that used to stand here was once the home of world- famous paintings and innumerable other art treasures. This was the villa of Hugó Kilényi (1834-1913), "head of department at the Ministry of Commerce” (at 37 Logodi utca at the time, 2 Váralja utca today). Hugó Kilényi was one of the best-known art collectors of the Millenary period, an expert of economics with an extensive knowledge of art history. In his collection that took thirty years to accumulate, there were several world-famous pictures, such as Venui with a Mirror by Titian or Perugiono’s Chriit on Mount Olive, but it also included works by Altobello Melone, Francesco Napolitano, or Pieter Brueghel Jr. His collection of miniatures contained works by renowned Hungarian artists (Frigyes Lieder, Gábor Melegh, György Raab or Miklós Barabás). His collection was auctioned in 1917 in the newly-founded Ernst Museum.

The building itself was unique on account of more than just its external appearance. It was the outstanding architect-painter of the period Albert Schickedanz (1846-1915), creator of Hungary's national icon Hősök tere (Heroes' Square), who de74