Kiss Katalin: Industrial Monuments - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1993)

but unknown acquaintance. It is like people we have met for years every morning going to work or to school. Slowly we become curious about them. Now we can get acquainted with the building of the Budaújlak Waterworks

The first temporary waterworks of Pest were established in Kossuth tér in 1866, after the great cholera epidemic. The first big capacity waterworks was built in 1880 in the suburb of Budaújlak, on the basis of János Wein’s plans. A year later it began to produce drinking water, and in 1883 Óbuda and the Buda hills became part of the waterworks network. The wells of Budapest’s water supply are situated along the Danube riverside, because subsoil water is abundant and in continuous flow here. The water here is pure and soft, which is important, as hard water is not suitable neither for washing nor for cooking. Subsoil water oozes up through the open bottom of the reservoirs such that the water always remains on a certain level even after pumping out.

The Budaújlak Waterworks plays a very important role even today. At the end of the last century many buildings of similar appearance were constructed as part of industrial plants. The majority have been demolished in the course of modernization, others have been rebuilt. Yet we should know that these bare brick buildings with their neutral appearance and Romantic detail (corbelled gables and light coloured plastered window- and door-frames) represented a characteristic “treasury style” in late 19th century architecture. Many unambitious buildings commissioned by the state or the capital, industrial buildings and provincial railway stations were built in this style. The brick facades needed no special maintenance, so it was very practical in the capital, which had cleaner air at that time.

The narrow strip between the Danube and the railway is not suitable for building purposes, thus we can hope to greet our acquaintance, the facade of the waterworks for several more years.

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