The Steiner-Seidl Apartment House, 18 Király street

Source: urbface.com

Commissioned by András Latzkovits clothing merchant, the two-story, Romantic-style apartment house was finished in 1852, the plans drawn up by József Limburszky. Later, in 1861, Terézia Wagner commissioned for an annex residence added to the back, which was designed by Károly Hild.

   
Source: urbface.com

One upstairs suite was occupied since 1876 by Kálmán Jálics wine wholesaler, the director of the Hungarian Western Railway Co., and another since 1894 by Gyula Jungfer, decorative blacksmith and locksmith, well-known across Europe, who left his marks on many community and private buildings in Budapest. He was at this time the head of the United Locksmith Board of Budapest, as well. From 1888, Mihály Steiner vintner and wholesaler, who was a member of the directorate for the Savings and Credit Association of Private Employees. He bought the house in 1900, so he could have a three-story, art nouveau style apartment house built in its place. The new building, which had a mezzanine floor, too, was finished in 1902.

Gyula Jungfer, decorative blacksmith and locksmith, One of the famous residents
Source: Wikipedia

Then, in 1906, it was bought by Emil Seidl, the CEO of Hungarian Railways (MÁV), who had the two grotesque, German-Aztec-Mayan-style mythical faces and the dragons above the windows plastered by students working in the shop of Géza Maróti sculptor. This was to be in the memory of Seidl’s brother, Antal Seidl (or as more known, Anton Seidl) conductor, who died young.

Antal Seidl, world-renown conductor, in whose memory his brother, Emil Seidl, plastered the facade sculptures of the house
Forrás: Wikipédia

The world-reknown maestro, who dies in New York, played a major role in the life of Richard Wagner: by copying the sheet music of the "Ring of the Niebelung", he soon introduced the Ring-cycle, consisting of four operas, to Europe and America. Later, Antal Seidl became a permanent conductor of Wagner in the New York Metropolitan, and up until 1897 he conducted 500 performances at the same time he worked as the head conductor of the New York Philharmonics, the only Hungarian in the history of the orchestra. His greatest success in the USA was as the concert conductor in the premier of Antonín Leopold Dvořák’s 9^th symphony (From the New World) – this is referenced with the Aztec-style faces on the façade of the house.

   
Source: urbface.com

Other notable famous residents were Sándor Noisser conductor, Sándor Rátkai actor-comedian and Aladár György Andor chandelier-manufacturer. Currently, the building is still an apartment house, with restaurants on the ground floor.

Source: utcater.hu

Source: urbface.com