Architect

Builder

Alfréd Hajós (1878–1955)

The Hungarian General Credit Bank had this palace built.

Changes

It was built as a bank palace with bank offices located on the first two floors, the ground and mezzanine floors, while the upper two floors offered space for tenement apartments presumably for the bank officials. This monumental palace has maintained its original function so far, with outlets on the ground level, and flats on the other three floors.

The bank palace was built at the time when the Art Nouveau square around the City Hall was created, in superior dimensions deservedly to its role. With its mass of two-storeys and impressive spectacle, it brought novelty in the cityscape in terms of elevation as well. This endeavour continued when the opposite city’s apartment house was raised, however, this process stopped in the 1930s. With its rounded corner, the building’s facade, running from the Republic Square to Czar Nenád Square, displays an uninterrupted and unified surface. The most important part is the central part which forms a massive and closed building block, suggesting safety and permanence in harmony with its function. Its elegance is also worthy of a bank palace, owing to the sharp verticals and calm rhythm of the impressive columns and large windows situated at the spacious mezzanine level.

Gerle János, Kovács Attila, Makovecz Imre: A századforduló magyar építészete, Békéscsaba 1990, 61.

Secesija u Subotici, A szecesszio Szabadkan, Subotica, Budimpešta