Gábor Eszter: Andrássy Avenue – Our Budapest (Budapest, 2002)
The adjacent building (No. 123 Andrássy út) is the only surviving villa of the four built by the Sugárút Construction Company (to designs by Benkó and Kolbenheyer). It retained its original shape for a long time. Its ground-floor loggia was glassed in quite some time ago, and a small extension was stuck to its back. All its current tenant, the Turkish Embassy, did to alter its original appearance involved the use of some foreign material for the fronts of the steps and the reclining lions placed on them. All this, however, could be mended yet. The first occupant of the building was Mrs Béla Keglevich née Ilona Batthyány, the daughter of Count Lajos Batthyány, Hungary ’s martyred prime minister of 1848. The mortal remains of Ilona were put to rest beside those of her father in his mausoleum, even though her name was removed from the monument when it was most recently renovated. The villa at No. 125 is the most tightly closed-in building of the row of villas. It was designed for Baron Ferenc Révay (1834 —1914) by Antal Weber in 1885. The original layout was rather peculiar as it offered no room for wife, family or children. The eccentric baron never entertained guests either. In 1915, after his death, the magazine Gyűjtő (Collector) recalled him thus: "Ferenc Révay. the last member of the Túróc branch of the barom Révay. died in his 80th year, in Christmas week. The old baron had lived his life in complete isolation from the external world for a tong time, living out hiA days in hió Andrássy út mamion. where the only person with whom he communicated was hiA favourite butler. János Reichl. Not only did he ban his own sister's children and grandchildren from hiA company, but in hiA laAt will and testament, the fifth he had drawn up since 1892, he disinherited hiA next of kin. leaving all hiA worldly possessions. which include forty thomand acres of land in Túróc. his ancient mansions, his Andrássy út home and his movable property, to János Reichl. His eccentricity has received much attention in the press and he was generally resented for his lack of interest in the fate of the fatherland. The accusation is not entirely fair, however. True, he could perhaps have disposed of his great ancestral fortune in a different manner, but there is no knowing what tragic events may have driven him into breaking all ties with his family and into his utter misanthropy, and it is also a mystery what strong ties connected him to the man he appointed heir to all his possessions. Having no positive information of any of that, we had better desist from vainly guessing. What we owe to the memory of the deceased is to assert that he did not forget about his nation, as he donated, one after the other in the period between 1876 and 1896. the valuable works of art and collections of artworks in his possession to the antique collection of the Hungarian National Museum. But he had withdrawn from public life as early as the 1870s to such an extent that only a 57
