Gyergyádesz László, ifj.: Kecskemét és a magyar zsidó képzőművészet a 20. század első felében (Kecskemét, 2014)

Jegyzetek

Pirogránit tetődísz a Cifrapalotán / A pyrogranite finial on the Cifrapalota (1903)

follows in the newspaper, Vasárnapi Újság in 1912: “The building operations of the ancient city were not adequate for the tastes of today and the growing circulation whereupon a new town-ordering has been made, and by this rate new streets have been opened in the old districts and the central market place has significantly been expanded. This greater setting has brought forth that more monumental buildings have been constructed where the authority made sure to give expression to the novel tendencies of Hungarian architectural art, the first representative of these trends was Ödön Lechner who started his work with the building of the new town hall in Kecskemét...”

“Jewish people started to have a direct influence on architecture towards the end of the 19th century when some Jewish students were admitted to the architectural department of the Technical University of Budapest and were employed by top planning offices. By 1900 the ratio of Jews among the students of the Technical University had increased to 44,46 %!" In this respect Kecskemét was not an exception given that for example at the beginning of the 20th century some Hungarian Jewish architects played an important role in forming and shaping the main square and its surroundings that was chosen to be the most

beautiful of its kind in Hungary in those days. Most of the buildings constructed then could be classified into three secessionist architectural styles. The first one is personally connected to Ödön Lechner of German extraction while we can find some Hungarian Jewish architects among his followers working in the second style. One of them is Géza Márkus who designed perhaps the most exceptional and nationwide known building of Kecskemét, the Cifrapalota (Ornamented Palace). The building originally was a lodging-house, one of the most important ones of Kecskemét. The town councillors decreed its construction in 1902. The first design of the “lodging-house of Kecskemét” was also published by the periodical, Művészet where the autodidact architect was an associate. There were two significant alterations on the final design considering the first plan of the fagade from the Rákóczi Street due to financial difficulties: on the one hand, he had to give up the two towers on the faqade, and on the other hand, instead of stone pedestal he had to use plastering. The exterior view of the building became slightly simpler and more moderate. The first plan with the two cupolas, the more complicated moulding, the rich stucco, and with the ceramic decoration had some baroque and rococo reminiscences in ac43