Haggenmacher Mansion, 52 Andrássy Road

 
Source: MESZL Budapest Collection

In the years following the Compromise, the urban development exploded, new ambitions and ideas took flight, and new buildings and road networks were designed. The key element of all this was the designing of the Boulevard (currently Andrássy Road), and they couldn’t have that without the beautiful luxurious buildings. It was a privilege to build by the side of the new road connecting the city and the City Park, bringing prestige to the owners. So the biggest names and companies tried to swoop in and grab the best properties, so they could build bigger and more beautiful mansions than before.

 
Source: MESZL Budapest Collection, welovebudapest.com

The Haggenmacher family was one of these big names, they managed to snag 8 properties, and at one point they owned all the buildings between nrs. 32 and 42 on the even side of the road at the same time. By the 1880s, the family was quite renowned, since the second biggest mill of Budapest was owned by them, and they excelled in beer brewing, only preceded by Antal Dreher. However, Henrik Haggenmacher was the “master” of buying properties and building houses, as well.

Henrik Schmahl, the architect of the mansion
Source: helyismeret.hu

Near Oktogon, 52 Andrássy Road was built in 1886, designed by one of the best architects of the time, Henrik Schmahl (Páris Court), who is currently still pretty much unknown. His solutions for the façade, the Renaissance style, the sculptural details raised the mansion to the level of the representative mansions even back then, and it showed its beauty even in its slow deterioration. It’s not a coincidence that this building turned out so well, since Schmahl had studied his profession by Miklós Ybl’s side, he was also the one leading the construction of the Opera House and designed many neo-Renaissance apartment mansions in Budapest.

   
Source: welovebudapest.com, epiteszforum.hu, pestbuda.hu

The building and the Opera House show quite a few similarities, like the solutions for the original main façade, or the rosette coffers, which decorated the brace arches in both the Opera House and the mansion. The original stone covering of the mansion’s façade was brought in from a limestone mine in Trieste by Cava Romana, which delivered to the Opera House, as well.

Haggenmacher’s house became a so-called apartment mansion, which means it was a private residence as a representative dwelling of the commissioner, but it had space for rentable apartments, too. This was a popular concept amongst the aristocracy, since the properties in Budapest are pretty expensive, and constructions could be exceedingly profitable. A building like this mansion was undoubtedly a good base structure, so after the 20^th century, with world wars, nationalizations and mostly the high level neglect of the mansion’s condition, it could live on as a hotel.

   
Source: welovebudapest.com

The Haggenmacher family lived on the first floor. Their six-room apartment then was rented in 1934 by the city for the Public City Library, later known as Ervin Szabó Library. Thanks to the close proximity of the literary cafés, many writers, like Frigyes Karinthy, Ernő Szép, Zoltán Kodály or Margit Kovács, frequently visited the library. In 2005, the mansion (with the house under 8 Andrássy Road) was exchanged for three Theresatown apartments and a house in the 2^nd District by the Theresatown Municipality. The apartment housing the branch library of MESZL was then sold in 2018.

  
Some of the guests in the mansion's Ervin Szabó Library (from left to right): Frigyes Karinthy, writer; Ernő Szép, poet; Zoltán Kodály, composer
Source: Wikipedia, cultura.hu

The full restoration of the Haggenmacher mansion started in 2019. The house is a listed building, so reconstruction was done under very strict conditions. Before the works, a detailed stock was taken, they checked what objects and places had to be preserved – like the tiled stoves, the rooms with wall panels, and the pillars, gateway, inner courtyard, frescos and the remains of the flooring. After this there was a serious planning to find solutions on how to turn a house designed for apartment needs and with a gangway into a hotel with 121 rooms, in a way that not only brings back the mansion’s old glory, but sneaks in playful modern solutions, as well.

   
Before renovation
Source: epiteszforum.hu

One such solution is the floor of the gateway, which indicates the wood tiles on the inner courtyards of apartment houses in Pest, or the checkered pattern of the atrium, which is the scaled-up version of the staircase and the gangway flooring. One of the protected rooms even has a bathtub located in the space, while walking down the hallways the original brick wall can be seen.

    
Source: welovebudapest.com, epiteszforum.hu, archikon.hu

Before this, none of the ceiling frescoes and the rosettes in the staircase and the gateway could be seen, and visitors could only walk on the remains of the checkered tiles, as the marble pillars of the gateway were hidden in the dusty and worn-down environment. After the reconstruction, all of these are clearly visible once more.

  
Source: welovebudapest.com, epiteszforum.hu, pestbuda.hu

In June 2022, the renewed mansion was given over as Hotel Oktogon. The 2500 square meters big building has a basement, a ground floor, a gallery, three floors, a rooftop and an engineering level. During the reconstruction they demolished the four old light wells from the rooftop to the basement, the inner courtyard got a glass roof, creating a new atrium. The reconstruction was designed by Archikon.

Source: pestbuda.hu

Sources: welovebudapest.hu, epiteszforum.hu, pestbuda.hu