Zádor Anna: Neoclassical Pest - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1993)

SZEMERÉDY HOÜSE

idence exists to support this: the one-time Valero Factory (the Ministry of Defence at present) in Honvéd utca (Honvéd u. 26-30), whose palace-like design manifests the development of the factory, which was established in Király utca in the eighteenth century. In place of the sprawling but modest one-storey building József Hild constructed a two-storey version with three facades. The main facade facing Honvéd utca has 23 axles. The eleven-axled central section is accentuated by a portico richly decorated with giant Ionic columns, and there is a balcony on its first floor. The vestibule, divided into three aisles, also indicates how demanding the owner was.

The area stretching from Roosevelt tér to present-day Petőfi tér is the heart of the city centre, its busiest and most precious part. Most of the fastest changes have always taken place here. World War II caused grave damage here as well; it is enough to mention the destruction of the former Heinrich House built by József Hild in 1828. It used to be a palace-like, delicately proportioned building with reliefs depicting mythological scenes in a rectangular area above the windows of its first floor, with a pediment above the five-axled cen42