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, 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 is a stucco ceiling in a late Gothic star-network pattern, with colorful paintwork.

Staircase

A double staircase with neo-Romanesque colonnade, marble-clad, colorfully painted, leads from the ground floor entrance hall to the first floor, with a beautiful wrought-iron gate in front of the floor.

Chapel

The chapel, located in the foyer to the right of the entrance, was created when the building was renovated and adapted to the needs of the University and the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences. Consecrated in the summer of 2000, the chapel's walls are decorated with enamel paintings of the stations of the cross and the tabernacle is the work of Mária Hertai. The "Chair of Wisdom" statue of the Virgin Mary, to the left of the altar is a copy of a 13th century Belgian statue.

Relief

Opposite of the main entrance, on the wall of the first floor staircase, a relief of Péter Pázmány by Tibor Rieger was placed in 2000, which the University had commissioned with money from the Hungarian Millennium Government Commissioners' Office.

Ceremonial Hall

Perhaps the most beautiful part of the building is the Banqueting Hall, which has a gallery and a gallery-like vaulted ceiling. Along the walls are columns of gray marble with neo-Romanesque paintwork. The ceiling is a stucco painted coffered system. The carved oak doors and stained glass windows harmoniously complement the overall effect of the interior decoration of the banqueting hall. Lighting is provided by three chandeliers suspended from the ceiling.

Szentkirályi Street 30.

In the immediate vicinity of the new headquarters of the Society, the single-storey, early eclectic house at No 30 was built in 1871. It was the site of the Rózsa Kálmán and Neje Book Printing House.

"Hall of Kings"

The building is not a monument, but its preservation is justified by the curiosity of its urban history, as it contains a rare monumental monument of Romanticism on the walls of what is now called the "Hall of Kings": 64 oil paintings by Lajos Gaál, painted on the walls in 1873, depicting the Hungarian leaders of the Migration Period, the kings of the Árpád dynasty and the medallion portraits of the 13 martyrs of Arad. The only foreigner in the series of portraits is Abdul Medjid, who gave Kossuth and his companions asylum. The circular ceiling painting commemorates the blood pact.

Library

The newly built modern library, inaugurated in 2001, is located in the Faculty's building at 30 Szentkirályi Street, with a reading room for 80 people.

Translation: Lilla Subert
Photos: PPKE ITK Vizuális Műhely