Faurest, Kristin: Ten spaces - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2010)
Hunyadi tér
very home-grown, beautifully irregular and homely. The summer tomatoes are ripened on the vine the way they ought to be, and the vegetables actually match the seasons. The Hunyadi market, like the other major market halls, figures prominently in the neighbourhood’s history. One early 20th century newspaper essay, written to complain about a wooden structure being built for waste storage, says. "In one corner they cut down a few trees, because that's always the first measure taken in every Budapest construction job." The writer referred to an area of the square where, from a kiosk, pheasants were being sold, and complained that right next to it there would be trash storage, which surely wouldn't be very sanitary. Evidently Hunyadi market was not the first place where random wooden structures were being thrown up with abandon, as the writer referred to the city as "Bódépest’’ (roughly translated, Kiosk City). During First World War, the terrible effects of the food shortage were evident here just as anywhere else. One newspaper account from 1915 described how it was nearly impossible to get butter, cheese and eggs, and a separate small wooden building had been set up just for these transactions. A large crowd waited for the delivery vehicle and then rushed the building where, on one side they could buy eggs and dairy products, and the other side meat, all in very limited amounts and with a large chance of the wares running out before everyone would be served. "The boards of the house creaked. You would think that the crowd would simply knock the building off its foundations." A woman broke the heel of her shoe in the struggle to get to the head of the line, and the newspaper account described the crowds of frustrated women as having lost "more in hairpins” than they saved by buying at the relatively low prices of Hunyadi market. The food crisis continued to grow, and in late October of 1915 there were virtually no potatoes to be had anywhere — causes blamed included profiteers hoarding the potatoes, ranchers feeding potatoes to their cows and pigs because feed had become too expensive, and lack of transportation vehicles (or fuel, or drivers). As for the square itself, its greatest asset is its large trees. The pea gravel covering most of its surfaces gives it something of a grey atmosphere, and its layout is archaic, awkward. A new, EU-standard playground provides some 29
