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

called the Haggenmacher

Houses.)

The more lavishly appointed first floor of the Haggenmacher Mansion at No. 52 Andrássy

út was

occupied by the owner's flat. For decades now, Branch No. 10 of the Municipal Ernő

Szabó Library

has been operating in the rooms of the apartment.

The next block between Eötvös

utca and

Csengery utca

is

similar to the Seven Houses as it, too, comprises three buildings of similar design. The central, fourstorey building is flanked by two three-storey ones. In terms of overall composition as well as smaller detail, the block is more modest in appearance. It is the work of an obscure designer whose name was Léé.

On the opposite corner of Csengery utca

(No.

59 Andrássy

út) stands

the Aladár Andrássy Mansion.

The building was designed by Mór

Kallina

for proprietor Ignác

Jálics in

1881. Ten years later, the inheritors sold the mansion to Count Aladár

(1827

—1903), the younger brother of prime minister Count Gyula

Andrássy. As

the 24 rooms of the mansion proved to be insufficient for the count's court, an additional storey was added to the first floor in 1891 to include the 12 servants’ rooms and a few auxiliary rooms. (That explains the contrast between the monumental windows on the first and the compressed row of apertures on the ’second’ floor.) The latter has been used by a company as its headquarters; thus serving as an office block, the building was renovated by its current owner in the year 2000.

The following block includes the building of the former State Elementary Teachers College (No. 65 Andrássy

út). Although

the identity of the original designer is uncertain, that much is known for sure that its final shape was given by Alajos

Hauszmann

in 1886. The nondescript building, which gives on three streets, embraces a courtyard with cast-iron pillars whose atmosphere is nothing less than enchanting. Before World War II it housed the Maria Theresa Girls' School to be converted, after the war, into Katalin Varga Gymnasium. Later it was transformed into a technical school training garment-makers and then caterers.

One block further up, the building standing at the corner of Vörösmarty

utca is the Old Academy of Music (No. 67 Andrássy

út), while

the one at Izabella utca

is the former Drawing School, renamed first Academy of Fine Arts, later College and today University of Fine Arts (No. 71 Andrássy

út). The

former was designed by Adolf Lang, the latter by Lajos Rauscher.

Between

the two stands the Old Palace of Arts — itself part of the University of Fine Arts today.

The Drawing School was a state-run institution, which is why the costs of construction and later of maintenance were covered from the budget of the ministry of culture. The Palace of Arts was used by a semi-private organisation, the National Fine Arts Society, and its construction was sponsored by the municipality, which sold the plot at a discount, but the rest of the expenses had

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