Gábor Eszter: Andrássy Avenue – Our Budapest (Budapest, 2002)

indeed, is the finer of the two buildings in terms of balance and structural harmony. The one on the right (No. 83—85), Kauser's building reminiscent of French Renaissance castles, is more massive and sombre. Its internal courtyards, one connected with a gate to the other, are truly impressive, if not indeed monumental. (It is a sad fact that they have to be closed to the public in view of today's poor public security.)

The large ground-floor corner-flat in the former Andrássy

Court

(No. 87—89 Andrássy út), the

building criticised by Nendtvich, was once the residence of internationally renowned composer and musicologist Zoltán

Kodály. Having given up his villa-apartment in Buda, the composer moved here only to escape to the Grand Hotel Galyatető

(later

transformed into a trade union hostel) where he spent most of the year in the first-floor suite reserved for him alone. The flat now houses a memorial museum. In a partitioned flat on the first floor lived Jenő

Barcsay,

whose second home was in the small artists' centre of Szentendre.

The effect of these two fine buildings of the Körönd

is

enhanced by the more than a hundred-year-old plane and horse-chestnut trees in the square, until these, too, fall victim to some modernisation or just a random event — as the other old trees of the avenue have done before.

The statues standing here also belong to the history of the Körönd.

The

square was originally decorated with fountains. Then Francis Joseph made a gift of ten statues to the capital; four of these went to the Körönd:

those

of István Bocskay

(by Barnabás

Holló), Gábor Bethlen (by

György

Vastag Jr),

Miklós Zrínyi (by

József

Róna) and János Pálffy (by

Károly

Senyei). The

two Princes of Transylvania, Bocskay and Bethlen,

were

transferred to Heroes' Square in 1958, as replacements for the Hapsburg monarchs removed from their niches in the 'royal gallery’ of the Millenary Monument, into which the national heroes could easily be fitted. Having served as the emperor’s general, Pálffy

was removed as a traitor to the country. Miklós

Zrínyi was

allowed to stay where he was and the figures of Bálint

Balassi, György Szondi and Bottyán the

Blind were erected to keep him company (the new statues were sculpted by Pál

Pátzay, László Marton

and Gyula

Kis-Kovács).

From the Körönd

to

the City Park — the row of villas

If it has not been conspicuous so far, Lajos Hevesi’s observation is certainly applicable here: "M thii Afreet then exempted not only from taxeó

but

alio Írom the

lawi of optia? While in the ca&e of every other straight avenue, the

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