Buildings Tell Tales

This courtyard, one of the greenest I've seen in Budapest, is hidden at Szondi utca 64, in the 6th district of Budapest. The property manager (társasházkezelő) of this house changed a few years ago, and they made many improvements, including this amazing courtyard that we wouldn't expect hidden behind a crumbling old facade. This house was designed by A. Portner and built in 1885 for Tivadar Januska.

In 1930, the house located on the other side of the street was demolished and replaced by the "Holy Family Church" (Szent Család-templom), whose towers you can see in my photo. This building barely escaped World War II; it was hit by a bomb on January 1st, 1945, and the interior, the organ, and almost all the furniture were lost. After the war, it took many years for the congregation to reconstruct the church. The construction of the new pulpit was mainly funded by Zoltán Kodály, who often visited this church.

A nice door in a residential building of Kőbánya, the 10th district of Budapest

A photo I took a few years ago inside the door of the "Szedő House," located at Hajós utca 32 in Budapest’s 6th district. Named after its first owner, Gáspár Szedő, the building was designed by Béla Málnai and built by Miklós Román between 1904 and 1905

I took these photos a few months ago in a house known as the Gyenes Villa, at Nyúl utca 6 in Budapest’s 2nd district. Completed in 1911 for the bank director Lajos Gyenes, the building was designed by Emil Ágoston. It stands on Nyúl utca, or “Rabbit Street”, a small street in Buda lined with historic villas.

Emil Ágoston was one of the active architects in Budapest in the early 20th century. His work includes the Hungária Bath, built between 1909 and 1913, and the façade of the Astoria Hotel on Múzeum körút, dating from 1913, alongside a number of residential buildings across the city.

Posting again about Báta, a village in Tolna County that I really enjoyed and have shared several times in recent weeks, I noticed during my visit that many houses along the main street have façades covered with tiles. It is something I have rarely seen elsewhere in Hungary, apart from a few isolated houses with glazed tile façades. Here, however, there are quite a few, and I really like their design.

Located at Semmelweis utca 4 in Budapest’s 5th district, this apartment building was designed by Dávid Jónás and built in 1905. Fortunately, many of the original details, such as the floors, doors, ironwork, and some of the windows, have withstood Hungary’s tumultuous twentieth century.
Perhaps its most interesting feature is a historic elevator that is still in use, which remains a rarity in Budapest.

The old staircase of Asztalos Sándor utca 7, a residential building in Józsefváros, Budapest’s 8th district.

This abandoned residential building is located at Andrássy út 21, a large residential building in Budapest’s 6th district. Its last residents moved out in 2017, and it has stood empty since. Known as the Sváb Palace, the building was commissioned in the 1880s by landowner Sándor Sváb and his wife, Lujza Helsinger, and designed by Vilmos Freund. It is located close to the Opera and the luxury shops along Andrássy Avenue, often nicknamed the “Champs Élysées of Budapest”. Given its location and the way similar buildings have been redeveloped in the area, it may be renovated in the future, potentially as a luxury hotel.

Another beautiful house in Báta, Tolna county, Hungary

These are some of the houses I found while visiting Báta, a small village in Tolna County, in April. I spent three days there, and as often happens when I am away, I ended up waking up at 5 every morning to be out in the early morning light.

Báta is a village on the banks of the Danube. Many older buildings are still standing, but a number of them are in poor condition. Like many villages in the Hungarian countryside, Báta has seen a steep population decline, from 1,742 inhabitants in 2013 to 1,366 in 2025. The result is visible in the housing stock. Some homes are abandoned as families move away, while others are occupied but deteriorating because owners often do not have the means to maintain or renovate