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

■ The

Theresa Town

Casino

(No. 39 Andrássy

út)

a hew weeks." Thus wrote Lajos Hevesi,

a

contemporary eye-witness, in his Sketches, a booklet published in 1876 when Sugárút

was

still under construction. And indeed, there is a uniform row of seven buildings — called Seven Houses at the time of their construction — stretching beyond Nagymező

utca, all

the way to Jókai

tér. Commissioned

by the Sugárút

Construction

Company, designs were made by the company's architect Emil Unger, to be completed after his death by the designer's paternal friend, Miklós

Ybl. The

company opted for the design — unknown in Hungary but fairly common in western Europe — in order to set an example to other builders of blocks of flats of how to achieve separation within one block. The style never took on and buildings with internal courtyards surrounded by passageways remained the norm. To make room for large shop windows — a rarity at the time — the bearing walls on the ground floor were replaced in part with pillars made of cast iron. Although the pillars were later walled in, some have been uncovered again and are now on display. (Plans were made for a similar row to be called Five Houses across the street, but a subsequent depression prevented them from being realised.)

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