A walk around the Faculty buildings
Szentkirályi Street 28.
The building
This prestigious three-storey neo-Gothic palace of the St Stephen's Society, the Catholic publishing house. It was built in 1898 on the half-century anniversary of the Society's establishment, based on the plans of architect and university professor Antal Hofhauser. Rising in the heart of the city, the pointed-arched palace is an unplastered red-brick building. The modern printing works of the St. Stephen's Society (Stephaneum Printing House) operated here until nationalization, when Franklin Printing House became the beneficiary of its printing predecessors.
Facade
The facade of this beautiful building has a loggia behind the parapet, two storeys high, with a chapel-like statue of St Stephen in the center, holding a double cross in his left hand and extending his right in blessedness. Below the central parapet, on the central colonnade, is the ornate main entrance, with wrought-iron flagstaff, lanterns and a pediment. The side entrances are located on the two corner balustrades. The four corners of the corner balustrades are decorated with the shielded teddy bear statues that later became the Franklin emblem.
Lobby
The main entrance opens into the ground-floor foyer, a cross-vaulted room supported on square pillars. To the front there is a stucco ceiling in a late Gothic star-network pattern, with colorful paintwork.