Buza Péter - Gadányi György: Towering Aspirations - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1998)

2 Kossüth Lajos utca, district V

The heraldic animal of the Counts Cziráky was a rampant white wolf. There can be little doubt that in the decades following the construction of this mansion one of the now blank shields whose round shapes decorate the fagade and gables once featured the figure of this rare beast which by now has abandoned the Inner City for ever. No recorded data survives concerning the date of the building’s construction or the name of its designer, but based on its style it can be dated to the end of the last century, most likely to the late 1880s. Its fine, richly segmented tower is a playful ornament, unlike the weighty impressive constructions decorating the aristocratic palaces designed by Meinig. Its restraint is a graceful attempt at blending in smoothly with the surrounding bourgeois houses. In terms of its function the building is a hybrid, a cross between aristocratic residence and urban apartment house. Not only the family of the counts Cziráky (Antal, Béla, János, Lujza, László) resided here in various periods of their lives being registered in the city directory under this address between 1890 and 1928, but sections of the building were apparently let to tenants by successive landlords.

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