The apartment house of Nándor Holndonner, 16-18 Hajós street

 
The apartment house before (left) and after renovation (right)
Source: csillagoshazak.hu, MESZL

Located in the very heart of Budapest, Hajós Street is one of the oldest and most famous cross streets of the prestigous Andrássy Street. Being close to the river Danube, there used to be a pub called “Boatman” in the area. The street was also named after the cheerful and noisy boatmen, who loved to visit the pretty infamous taverns and speakeasies, and in place of the beautiful Opera House was only a flea market.

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

Since then the area went through a huge change, and many apartment houses, built in the then-popular art nouveau style, popped up one after another in Hajós street during the turn of the century. As the town of Pest kept growing, the street became part of the inner city and boatmen were replaced by wealthy citizens and bohemian artists. Restaurants, bars, cafés and theatres were opened to entertain the rich and educated citizenry.

    
Source: welovebudapest.com, szecessziosmagazin.com

Until a few years ago, most of the apartment houses were in a terrible state, the once delicate façade ornaments had fallen off, the glittering windows had only a couple panes left. But since then, the little street slowly improved, bars and bistros opened up one after another, and the houses were gradually renovated, as well.

Starting from Andrássy Avenue, walk down the side street next to the Opera building to see the building at 16 Hajós Street that was magnificent even in its ruined state - not to even talk about its renovated form. According to the writing over the gate, the building was finished in 1911, and its developer was Nándor Holndonner while the architect was Dezső Freund.

The architect of the house, Dezső Freund
Source: geni.com

Usually, the three-five-floor, closely built-in apartment houses of Freund, built before the World War, had symmetrical facades, were divided with closed and open balconies and their gables were prominent. Their looks were reminiscent of not just Komor’s works, but the houses of Emil Ágoston, Gyula Fodor or the Román brothers, who were also working in Pest.

   
Source: szecessziosmagazin.com

The apartment house was redone beautifully in 2014 on the outside and the inside. Fortunately, they didn’t use the usual method, the pebbledash plastering, so all the tiny details of the ornaments are perfectly visible. The ground floor is currently occupied by Imázs Restaurant.

Source: welovebudapest.com

Sources: welovebudapest.hu, epiteszforum.hu, operagardenhotel.hu