Gerle János: Palaces of Money - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1994)

and Ármin Hegedűs, would have had an electric hoard­ing to announce the winnings in the bank’s lottery. Everybody, with the sole exception of Papp and Sza­bolcs who suggested a larger number of sections, would have divided the narrow facade into three seg­ments, to which Böhm and Hegedűs as well as Sándor Heidelberg added cabinet-like bay windows-something similar to what was actually realised. Each entry was characterised by a pure Art Nouveau style borrowed from the graphic arts. The huge mosaic pattern decorating the gable has come to epitomise the Hungarian art of the turn of the century. The mosaic was designed by the stained-glass and mosaic artist Miksa Róth, who had achieved a world-wide reputation by that time. Three versions are known. In the first there is an archangel in the middle with his assistant putti scattering money among the people. In the second the archangel is already replaced by Patrona Hungáriáé (Our Lady, Queen of Hungary) seated on a throne and surrounded by the historical figures of Hungarian liberty, including Rákóczi and Kossuth in a circle of friends. The sculptural group on the very top-including a globe by the sculptor Simon Ney, possibly meant to symbolise the idea of interna­tionalism in the field of financial policy-was destroyed during the Second World War. (There were flats and distinguished shops on the upper floors of the building, which no longer houses a bank at all.) The Hermes Hungarian General Exchange CO. Entrance to the Hermes Hungarian General Exchange Co., design by Aladár Kármán and Gyula üllmann 46

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