Gábor Eszter: Andrássy Avenue – Our Budapest (Budapest, 2002)

■ The Harkányi Manóion (No.

4

Andráóty út)

retailed no less than six million bottles in 1889, a figure that was to rise to ten million until the outbreak of World War I.

Some of Károly

Lotz

’s frescos are thematically related to the beneficent effects of medicinal waters, whether consumed as a drink or used as bathing water, or else refer, via representations of Hermes, to commerce. Pictures on the landing feature allegories of such bourgeois virtues as industry or prudence and represent wealth, the reward of an active life.

The Saxlehner Mansion is in a fair state of repair to this day with Lotz’s frescos having been restored in recent years. The former apartment of the proprietor houses the Postal Museum, which is why the interior design has largely been preserved, and although the furniture is not original, the apartment as well as the museum exhibition is open to the public.

The second building on the left-hand side (No. 4 Andrássy

út) is

also an apartment mansion. It was designed for Frigyes

Harkányi by

Gusztáv

Petschacher,

who moved to Pest from Vienna as the architect of the Sugárút

Construction

Company, and whose name frequently appears below. The plot was acquired by Harkányi for

the sum of 360 forints per square fathom (3.57 square metres) in 1881, and construction work started the following year.

This building also fronts on two streets. Its base position is thus similar to that of the Saxlehner Mansion, but a few details are worth noting. In the <4