Hajós György: Heroes' Square - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2001)

The Exhibition Hall today

the building is that of a three-bay medieval basilica, where the 20-metre nave in the middle and the 9-metre wide aisles are separated by solid walls instead of colonnades. The halls in the nave are illuminated via a glass ceiling rather than windows above the aisles. The rooms in the aisles are, with one exception, also lit from above. A wide opening connects the last room of the nave to the amphitheatre-like hall where the statues are on display. The floor of the latter is sunk 45 centimetres below the level of the other rooms. In the main axis behind this is a café, which opens onto a four- column portico.

The facade of the 51 -metre wide and 111 -metre long building was reminiscent of the classical, monumental style of the early Italian Renaissance, with rough brickwork surfaces set in pyrogranite above a stone base. Gilding was used in places to enhance the colours. In the mosaic of the tympanum, made to cartoons by Jenő Haranghy in 1940-41, is Hungary’s first king St. Stephen, depicted as patron of the arts.

On the back wall of the main entrance’s portico is Lajos Deák-Ebner’s fresco-frieze with the allegory of the arts. The first picture on the left shows how the art of sculpture began. Vulcan moulds clay into human shape, which is inspired with life by goddess Athena with her breath. Around them are the god of love Amor and

40