Where luxurymeets historyThis ‘wow’ building of #Budapest originally was designed for
Where luxury meets historyThis ‘wow’ building of #Budapest originally was designed for Baron József Brudern by Mihály Pollack, also the architect of the Hungarian National Museum. By the time it was completed in 1817, people had already started to call it Párisi Udvar (Paris Court) or Párisi House. Baron Brudern himself lived on the second floor, and there were 32 shops were located on the ground floor. The shops were the most elegant and luxurious in the city. It was believed that the attraction-seeking, breath-taking building was designed by Pollack as a replica of the Parisian Passage des Panoramas, from where it took its name. In 1906 it became the home of Budapest’s Central Savings Bank, and was redesigned entirely. And this is the form one can see now! This rebuilt happened between 1909 and 1913 by a Hungarian bank in need of spiffy new headquarters Most of the original structure was demolished and rebuilt, and bank offices and apartments were added upstairs. In the spirit of the era, something splashy was in order, resulting in a mix of #ArtDeco, Neo-Gothic, #Moorish, and #ArtNouveau details, with enough ceramic, metal, and wood ornamentation to adorn a town, let alone a building. With its glass domes, turrets, tiled façade, and gargoyles, it’s the kind of exquisite historical confection that once prompted the late, great chef and cultural observer #anthonybearden to describe Budapest’s architecture as “building porn.” Although the Párisi Udvar (or “Paris Court”) survived both World Wars, the building suffered when the Iron Curtain was drawn on Hungary after World War II, and some ghosts of its Soviet past still lingered. The façade was damaged during the revolution of 1956, and further travesties ensued during a renovation in the 1960s. In an attempt to stabilize the glass arcade, for instance, gobs of cement were applied to its steel framework, which eventually caused it to rust. All that steel had to be replaced while preserving the fragile glass panels within. The last four-year renovation finished in 2019 has brought the #BelleÉpoque arcade back to its sparkling former glory. The restored courtyard reopened as part of The Unbound Collection by #Hyatt in June 2019,https://cpp-luxury.com/stunning-heritage-parisi-udvar…/ -- source link
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