Ferkai András: Shopfronts - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1996)
places. One is taken back to bygone ages by just stopping in front of their windows. These shops have remained in private ownership for the past forty years. Their owners defied contempt and harassment in order to preserve the name of their business, to keep their traditions alive and to serve their customers. Such an old-established shop is that of the goldsmiths Mr István Barta and Mrs György Barta (10 Bérezi István utca, District V) located among the shops leaning against the back of the Deák tér Lutheran Church. The shopfront is no more than two narrow apertures on the ground floor of a neo-Classical building. In the window, which is set in frames painted dark, a scattering of goldsmiths’ pieces displayed on dark velvet evoke the intimacy of family jewels. Inside are a floor made of boards, a simple counter and a Biedermeier ambience. Wooden panels turned back during the day are drawn in for the night and strap-hinged panels covered on the outside with metal plates hide everything behind them. The optician Lajos Libál’s premises at 7 Veres Pálné utca (District V) has existed since the middle of the 19th century. Libái was a phenomenon in old Pest. He started his career as a “Zirkelmeister” (compass maker) in Kalap (today irányi) utca in the 1840s. It was only later that he began to make optical instruments. He opened his own shop on the site where it still operates. When the neo-Classical building that housed it was demolished in the 1910s, he moved his business to the other side of the street to save it. When in 1934 the owner of the building wanted Libái to buy the premises instead of renting them, Libái moved back to the ground floor of No. 7. The beautiful row of shopfronts complementing the building used to occupy its whole front in Veres Pálné utca. Only half the row has survived, but the former Libái shop is at the right end. A pronounced element of the wooden shopfront is the cornice containing the casing for the iron shutters used for closing the shop. The shop sign is on the end face of the cornice leaning towards the street. The shopfront consists of a shop window and a Biedermeier door. Through the glass door, one enters an ancient-looking room. The furnishings painted in a greyish colour were made of soft wood before the war. Old paper boxes are arranged on the shelves and the handles, as well as the plates covering the keyholes in the drawers and glass cabinets are made of brass. The built-in shelves are lit by lamps which have frilled shades and are fixed to the edges of the shelves. In front 50
