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

corative sculptures such as the pulpit of the church in the city centre (made by Fülöp Úngradt in 1806). Only two public statues were made during this time: the Nereida Fountain still standing in Ferenciek tere, and the statue of St. Christopher on the corner of Váci utca and Kristóf tér sculpted by Mihály Bauer (1789-1854).

For a long time the other establishments of the city could not keep up with the beauty of these buildings and the pace of their development. This contrast was also pointed out by István Széchenyi in “Dust and Mud”. There were few paved streets and even the majority of the footpaths lacked a hard surface. It was only in 1785 that trees began to be planted in Városliget to prevent the city from being covered with clouds of dust whenever a gale hit. Street lighting was poor and the level of traffic was also far behind what could have been expected. Some improvements were only made in the wake of the painful events of the flood of 1838. New building regulations were introduced, which controlled not only construction works when durable materials were used, but also the paving of streets and footpaths. In spite of all this, we find that the development of public utility companies had reached the average standard of those in other European cities only by the second half of the century.

From the point of view of town development, neoclassical Pest taken as a whole is a significant and unified creation. It represents such vigour and such a level of architecture that we can still be proud of. Not only does it show how enduring structures can be created when means are limited, but it also encourages us to continue these traditions.

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