{"id":328020,"date":"2019-02-03T05:00:52","date_gmt":"2019-02-03T04:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funzine.hu\/?p=328020"},"modified":"2019-01-31T16:27:00","modified_gmt":"2019-01-31T15:27:00","slug":"budapest-uncovered-the-unbuilt-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funzine.hu\/en\/2019\/02\/03\/goodapest-en-2\/budapest-uncovered-the-unbuilt-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Budapest Uncovered: The Unbuilt City"},"content":{"rendered":"

Picture this: a Budapest whose downtown is bordered by the gently flowing Danube from all sides, with a huge, New York-style high-rise scraping the sky at its centre, overlooking an imposing, 1000-metres tall pyramid sitting atop Gell\u00e9rt Hill. Sprinkle it with a grandiose synagogue balancing on the line between Art Nouveau and Art Deco, and a whole new avenue that would\u2019ve run parallel to Andr\u00e1ssy \u00fat, and you\u2019ve got the makings of 2019\u2019s first Budapest Uncovered!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Skyscrapers <\/strong><\/h2>\n

The economic boom of the 1930s brought something new to the table of Budapest\u2019s architects: a chance to design and plan towering skyscrapers that would proclaim for the whole world to see the power and wealth of governor Istv\u00e1n Horthy\u2019s Hungary. The most prolific skyscraper-architect of this epoch was undoubtedly Hug\u00f3 Gregersen, a man of Norwegian descent, whose plans for the Orczy and R\u00f3kus skyscrapers (composed of 34 and 27 floors, respectively) were scrapped in favour of more cost-efficient alternatives, including the red-brick Mad\u00e1ch buildings that would\u2019ve functioned as the gate to the city\u2019s second avenue, to be named after Queen Elizabeth. This boulevard (connecting the downtown to City Park) suffered the same fate as Gregersen\u2019s skyscrapers, and was abandoned in 1939 because of the project\u2019s costliness. Today\u2019s V\u00e1rosh\u00e1za Park would also look a lot different if any of the handful of works submitted for the Town Hall design contest had become realized. For instance: if it\u2019s up to architects Kert\u00e9sz and Weichinger, today there would stand an elegant, American-style skyscraper where the park and the De\u00e1k t\u00e9r Evangelical Church are located, complete with a 30-storey high clock tower.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Great Canal<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The idea of opening a canal in a former distributary channel of river Danube came to Ferenc Reitter, the first engineer of the Public Works Council in 1868. According to Reitter\u2019s plans, the navigable waterway would\u2019ve taken only four years to construct, and a sum of about 11 million forints (the Parliament building set the state budget back by 19 million). The canal would\u2019ve been 2.5 metres deep and 36 metres wide, with 12 bridges crossing over it, 48 jetties, and sluices separating it from the Danube at its northern and southern ends. Unfortunately, the project was cancelled due to financial problems, and the canal\u2019s planned route eventually became what is known today as the Grand Boulevard.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Lip\u00f3tv\u00e1ros Synagogue<\/strong><\/h2>\n

During the second half of the 19th century Budapest was the scene of a true Jewish renaissance, with such beautifully constructed places of worship springing up from the ground as the Doh\u00e1ny, Kazinczy, and Rumbach utca synagogues, each one pertaining to a peculiar style of architecture. And even though the city has nothing to be ashamed of when it comes to sizable synagogues, none of the aforementioned temples would compare to the grandness of the unbuilt Lip\u00f3tv\u00e1ros synagogue. There were all in all 23 plans submitted for the 1899 design contest, which only had three stipulations: 1) the building must be free-standing, 2) it must have a seating capacity of at least 3,600 people, and 3) it must not cost more than 1 million forints. Although there were some real masterworks among the submitted proposals (including a plan by B\u00e9la Lajta, designed in late Art Nouveau style based on Byzantine architecture), sadly, none of the architect teams could drive the cost estimate below the amount specified by the local Jewish community: the double-dome (40+30 metres) of Ern\u0151 Foerk\u2019s and Ferenc Sch\u00f6mer\u2019s winning proposal would\u2019ve cost 6 million forints alone.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

National Valhalla<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The last in the line of imposing but unrealized Budapest projects is the so-called National Valhalla monument, whose idea first popped up in the mind of the great reformer count Istv\u00e1n Sz\u00e9chenyi, then was taken up by his son \u00d6d\u00f6n in 1871: they envisioned the construction of a Pantheon-like structure on top of Gell\u00e9rt Hill that would\u2019ve paid tribute to the heroes of Hungarian history. Apart from planting a couple of trees and tweaking the Citadel a bit, not much happened in the coming decades. However, at the turn of the millennium, a newfound interest in building a great memorial gripped the imagination of architects: the German Adolf Willheim conceived plans of a Ionic-style acropolis, complete with a giant statue of Lady Hungary, Istv\u00e1n Medgyaszay\u2019s monumental Pantheon was to be topped by a dome shaped like St. Stephen\u2019s Crown, while someone went as far as to make an impossible (and anonymous) suggestion of building a 1,000 metres-tall pyramid in the place of Gell\u00e9rt Hill, signifying the glory of the 1,000-year old Hungarian state. First, the outbreak of WWI, then WWII made sure that none of the grandiose plans were ever carried out.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

M\u00e1rton J. Vizy<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Architectural plans of Budapest skyscrapers, a synagoge, and a canal that were not realized.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":328015,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1388],"tags":[1498,1499,11465,11466],"post_places":[],"class_list":["post-328020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-goodapest-en-2","tag-architecture","tag-buildings","tag-past","tag-skyscrapers"],"acf":{"connected_places":null,"del_image":""},"yoast_head":"\nBudapest Uncovered: The Unbuilt City<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Today an elegant, American-style skyscraper would stand where the park and the De\u00e1k t\u00e9r Evangelical Church are located, complete with a 30-storey high clock tower.\" \/>\n<meta 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