Fabó Beáta - Gall, Anthony: I came from the East to a City of Great Palaces. Károly Kós, the early years 1907-1914 (Budapest, 2013)
Kós' First Steps as an Independent Architect
CROW CASTLE: THE HOME KÁROLY KÓS BUILT 1910 The home of the architect in Sztána/Stana: an artist's home in the COUNTRY AND A WAY OF LIFE Around the turn of the 20th century several artists and visionaries in Europe considered the home as the engine of change and the possibility of a new way of life. For Károly Kós his Crow Castle, built in Sztána /Stana in the Kalotaszeg/Tara Cälatei region of Transylvania, realised the ideal lifestyle as formulated by Ruskin in England and Gallen-Kallela in Finland - leaving behind the metropolis for a frugal life in the country. Kós intended to find his home and his workplace in Transylvania. He was personally acquainted with Eliel Saarinen and took Akseli Gallen-Kallela to see Kalotaszeg/Tara Cälatei himself. The picturesque path leading from the train station of Sztána/Stana to Körösfő/Izvoru Crisului winds through the forest along the ridge above the valley. This makes it probable that the two of them passed by the spot that later became home for Kós, and the location of Crow Castle. Meeting Gallen-Kallela was doubtless a formative experience for Kós, which gave him further impetus to make his home in Sztána/Stana. Choosing the location In 1909 Kós headed home from Budapest, having been summoned by his mother. Before taking the train back to Budapest. He recalls: ‘...I remained standing on the edge of the mountain, in the full knowledge that I was standing in the middle of Kalotaszeg: the Kalotaszeg which had freely presented me with all its beauties and wonders, collected and preserved in its treasure-house over a thousand years. ...It would be terribly ungrateful of me to leave such a gift giver unregarded... ' In Körösfő (Izvoru Crisului) this was the time when hay was being gathered and taken to the barns from the fields. I made up my mind and went straight to the train station in Sztána to find my acquaintence, the old and know-it-all stationmaster, Mr Körmendi. Td like to buy a small piece of land, large enough for me to build a house on it. If you happen to know such, but above the railway line. He considered my words. ‘As far as I know the Gegenbauers have a small lot separatedfrom the rest of their garden by the path that crosses the forest. It's not very suitable for gardening or building on it, but it's up for sale, should anyone be interested. ‘Can I have a look?’ ‘Let me show you! We went to have a look. The lot was indeed nothing but a steep hillside, a stretch of unkept newly cutforest land at the edge of the woods, with only two gigantic oaks left on it. But it was above the road and you could see far if you looked around from the hillside - see the beautiful meadows in blossom on one side and cherry trees and grassy slopes all the way to the woods across the stream on the facing mountain on the other. This poor, unkempt, sloping piece of land pleased me greatly as soon as I saw it!K0S I991:102-104-After this experience in the actual landscape Kós set out to make characteristic sketches for a small cottage on a lonely hilltop (entitled: The Tower, Round Manor, Crow Castle). These are all precursors of Crow Castle as we know it today. Of the actual designs for Crow Castle, only four of the preliminary sketches (perspective image and floor plan) and the Kós’ sketch representing the floor plans including the conversion works of 1925 have survived. In the form of Crow Castle we see a simple, clear geometry at work. Connecting the circular tower and its counterpart, the rectangular wing is undoubtedly an experiment born from studying medieval and folk architecture in Transylvania. The building is an organic part of the hilly Kalotaszeg/Tara Cälatei landscape with its fields and groups of beech trees. 11 The architect's Ars Poetica, 1909 A Ház, 1909.2. 138
