Ferkai András: Shopfronts - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1996)

The frohtage of Hager’s confectionery at 49 Rákóczi út. Vili

(jade of the shop into three sections. The narrower apertures on the two sides serve as entrances to the building and the shop respectively, the central one accommodates a wide shop window while the row of office windows are above. The fields above the entrances on the sides of the white marble frontage are decorated with reliefs imitating classical ornaments - a woman holding a lyre and a man with a vase and a chalice.

In 1929 the confectioner Rezső Hauer saw the completion of the new wooden frontage of his outlet at 49 Rákóczi út in District VIII. Actually, the installment can hardly be called a shopfront as its designer, the architect Rezső Hi- kisch, respectful of traditions, merely framed the arched apertures on the ground floor of the tenement building. The dark stained carved wooden panelling runs along the edges of the arches thus connecting them, and the pilasters between the shop windows are concealed by sign boards. What will happen to this frontage which has retained most of its carved ornaments is uncertain, because Hauer’s confectionery has been closed for some years now. It is reported that this truly historic place will be modernized, deprived of its inner room, and become part of the huge Bonbon Hemingway trading empire. Presumably Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin Robbins products will be sold there.

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