Architecture Budapest

Szervita tér, the bank with heaven on its forehead

A bank that filled its facade with glass and hung the nation's history above it, after an earlier design had stuck to money.

2 min readSzervita tér 3

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The Török banking house on Szervita tér, built in 1906

Look up at number 3, the narrow, tall facade wedged between the others. Four storeys of glass rise toward a gable crowded with colour.

The Török banking house was built in 1906 to a design by Henrik Böhm and Ármin Hegedűs, and the glass mosaic at the top came from the workshop of , after a composition by Zsigmond Vajda. It is called The Glorification of Hungária. At the centre sits the patroness of Hungary, enthroned with the and the sword of Stephen, an angel holding a coat of arms on either side. Below her, the country's great names come to pay their respects, among them , and .

This was the second idea. The first design showed scattering money among the people, which for a bank would have been a pretty clear message. In the end the loftier version won out, and so an office building ended up with the nation's history above its shop window.

The Glorification of Hungária, glass mosaic from the workshop of Miksa Róth

Notice too the two winged heads just beneath the mosaic, holding up the edge of the gable.

From the square we turn into Városház utca and keep walking until a baroque facade looms up on our left, one that seems to go on forever.

Map showing Szervita tér 3, 1052 Budapest
Szervita tér 3, 1052 BudapestBudapest
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Sources. Story: Muemlekem.hu (monument register, number 621) on the 1906 construction by Böhm Henrik and Hegedűs Ármin, the glass facade and the mosaic in the oromzat; Köztérkép on the original design with Fortuna scattering money and the choice for The Glorification of Hungária; Földes Mária, Ornamentation (Our Budapest, 1993) on Róth Miksa and Vajda Zsigmond as the makers; Budapest-képarchívum of the Szabó Ervin Library on the Patrona Hungariae in the facade Photos: Both photos: Globetrotter19, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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