Veszter Gábor: Villas in Budapest. From the compromise of 1867 to the beginning of World War II - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1997)

social life towards privacy suddenly became a fundamental requisite. Spending some time close to nature at least once a year became the desire of anybody disposing of sufficient affluence. Summer vacations came into fashion; the first spas and holiday resorts were created and quickly multiplied as a result of constantly growing demand. Because business required constant tending, it was difficult for members of the bourgeoisie to remain out of town for very long - which explains why popular summer resorts were created in the close vicinity of cities. Businessmen could easily commute everyday between the Grünewald and Berlin, the Wienerwald and Vienna, Sváb-hegy or Zugliget and Buda, or between the Városliget (City Park) and Pest while their families enjoyed the benefits of nature. During the first decade of the 19th century, vineyards were planted between the area of Terézváros and the newly created Városliget in order to bind the soil. By the 1830s, summer residences were built one after the other on plots measuring on average about 4300 square metres. As for the Buda hills, the areas of Sváb-hegy, Zugliget and Szépjuhászné were mainly parcelled at the end of the 1830s and the beginning of the 1840s. The first villas were built from the middle of the 1840s on incredibly vast plots, often approaching eight and a half acres.

The origins - summer residencies and family

HOUSES IN NEO-CLASSICAL AND ROMANTIC STYLE

By the sheer number of their rooms, it is clear that summer residences were designed, by definition, to be used as secondary residences with a reduced number of servants. Closeness to nature was the most important point. The garden and the trees played an important part; a shady porch leading to the garden, later replaced by a wooden veranda, was an indispensable element of this type of building. Some of the summer houses built in the Buda hills in the 1840s can still be seen today on Budakeszi út. The actual appearance of No. 38, the former Hild Villa (1884) is quite different from what it looked like originally, for the residence underwent significant expansion in the course of the last century. Csendilla, No. 73 of the same street, is probably one of the examples of this type of building that have very much retained their original character.

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