Buza Péter - Gadányi György: Towering Aspirations - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1998)
350 Ft Budapest certainly did become a metropolis in the last quarter of the 19th century, populated by the bourgeoisie or even the haute bourgeoisie. In its choice of ornamentation the bourgeoisie, by no means characterised by modesty in its ambitions and the way it proclaimed those ambitions, followed the example set by those going before it in rank and in history. Thus its houses were decorated with turrets and domes and other ornaments, often intended to be elegant, but which were much like paste in comparison with genuine diamonds. Yet even if the bourgeois taste was sometimes unsure, there was nothing spurious about the attitude to life behind it. In what follows we have limited our choice of roof ornaments to those decorating once privately-owned buildings connected to known individuals as well as, for the sake of comparison, domes on mansions that formerly belonged to the aristocracy. ISBN Rb3fl37bflö-0 9 789638 376886 CITY HALL
