Faurest, Kristin: Ten spaces - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2010)
Károlyi-kert
Turkish mosque) at the end of the axis of Henszlmann Imre utca. The streets around the square — Magyar, Ferenczy István and Henszlmann Imre — are worth perusing for their architectural diversity and value, with Classicist, Neo-Renaissance, and Romanticist Neo-Baroque styles. At Károlyi Mihály utca i2 is the structure built from 1866-68 in Neo-Renaissance style by Miklós Ybl, which started life as the First Domestic Savings Bank of Pest, later to become the Waterworks Headquarters, now the Ybl Palace Events Centre. Károlyi-kert was once the garden of the nearby Károlyi palace, which since 1957 has served as the Petőfi Literature Museum. The museum, whose aim is collecting and preserving records of Hungarian literature, is named for poet Sándor Petőfi, who died young in the 1848—49 War of Independence and who remains the very symbol of Hungarian poetry. It features a manuscript archive, a library, an art and relics collection and an audiovisual library. The site even prior to the palace’s construction has a deep history — 11th and 12th century remains, including jewelry, have been found here. The palace and its garden’s first known owner was Gábor Patachich, from 1744. From 1747 it was the property of Ferenc Barkóczy, the bishop of Eger. It was then acquired by the Károlyi family in 1768. The palace and garden's last private owner was Mihály Károlyi, Hungary’s leader during the brief spell of democracy from 1918-19. The palace itself is a u-shaped Classicist building with one additional story and a Baroque core. Its ornamentation reflects elements of late Baroque, Classicism, early Eclecticism and the Neo-Baroque. It was modernized and expanded in 1832 by György Károlyi. The plans were prepared by the Viennese architect Anton Pius Riegel and carried out by local master builder József Hofrichter. Riegel was replaced in 1833 by Heinrich Koch, who later built the Károlyi family’s countryside palaces. After Hofrichter’s death, the direction of further construction work was taken over by the renowned Classicist architect Mihály Pollack. The oldest extant document of the garden is a design from 1768. A new design was prepared in 1770 including an alléé through its centre with Rococo floral arrangements on both sides and symmetrically-arranged containers of Mediterranean plants. The garden was surrounded by grape arbours and also included a triangular vegetable garden and a pool on the south side. The park 22
