Orphanage, castle, slum flat: abandoned buildings in Hungary – PHOTOS
There are many buildings in Hungary that are waiting to be renovated or demolished. It would take time, money and energy to renovate them, so neither state-owned nor privately-owned abandoned buildings can expect to be rebuilt in the next few years. Some have been standing empty for decades, and are mostly the victims of homeless people, stray dogs, and vandals, or just time and weather.
Almost everyone in the country could now be practising urbex as a hobby, as every town, even the smallest, has at least one, if not three, abandoned buildings. This activity, called urbex, is pursued by many citizens of Hungary, who spend their free time photographing and going inside abandoned buildings. Their YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook profiles have thousands of followers in total – but this is not enough to save these buildings.
Slum in Budapest: “Even the police didn’t dare approach it a few years ago”
“That’s what they got for 2 billion. With that amount of money, we could have done the cleanup with a good social programme, but everyone just wanted the building to go away as quickly as possible. That failed too,” said Mihály Bulcsú social worker to Népszava.hu in June 2022. The following pictures were taken on 14 January 2023.
The pictures were accompanied by comments such as “Even the police didn’t dare approach it a few years ago.” On the Facebook page Hős utca hangjai (Voices of Hős Street), they also report on events such as the demolition of walls and windows by the municipality of apartments’ that were overrun with mould and vermin. Since the walls were demolished, access was free for the 6-year-old children living next door, who found an 80 cm bladed sword to play with.
For the children of current and former residents, the social workers of the Contour Association collect donations to help them start school. Either way, they try to help those who have lost their footing. As the municipality has removed the doors and windows of countless empty flats, residents are now paying many times their previous heating bills, Átlátszó.hu reported back in December 2020.
Postbank Budapest: a building abandoned for a decade
One such abandoned building is the old, bankrupted Postbank (Postabank) in the heart of Budapest, in a highly frequented location. Its interior houses, for example, a dead pigeon that never made it out of the building, a maquette of a city plan, a burnt EU flag and a marble toilet.
Despite its popular location – right next to the Ministry of Finance – it has been empty for a decade. The building was commissioned by the merchant Ferenc Gross in 1924-25. Built in 1960, the pub-restaurant in the building has been frequented by people such as Ferenc Liszt. Between 1871-79, the restaurant was bought and run by János Gundel, the father of the famous gastro-family, and then part of the building was taken over by the Lipótváros Casino Company to open a casino.
In 1909, the Hungarian Iparbank Rt. bought the whole building. The building was damaged in World War II and was restored in 1948. The Postabank and Savings Bank Ltd. operated in the building between 1988 and 2002, and a ruin pub was located there between 2005 and 2009.
Komárom Orphanage
In 1969, the Orphanage in Komárom was opened. The building housed children in need of state care. The orphanage ceased to exist in 1988, when a new programme, the residential care home network, was inaugurated a year earlier. Today, the walls of the building contain the former porch, cafeteria, stage, now all destroyed, and the now flooded cellar. In a corridor, there were five bedrooms, a teachers’ room, a storeroom and a bathroom with shower and toilet. In the hallway, each child had a separate closet.
“In the 1980s, the institute also housed a kindergarten and a school. Only when we went to the beach did we leave the building,” a former resident named Éva explained to Kemma.hu. Despite the fact that more than three hundred children and young people lived here in the 1980s, only a few came to the meeting because many were ashamed of the conditions in which they were brought up.
The children who grew up here were given everything they needed, from trips abroad to summer camps and celebrations. The only thing they lacked was parental love.
Below you may check out some more photos:
A victim of time around Lake Balaton: an abandoned castle
The Zichy Castle, built in the 18th century in the town of Lengyeltóti, near Lake Balaton, has been extended several times and later converted into a hospital. After World War II, it was used by the hospital of Marcal as a psychiatric clinic and was sold in 2007, together with the 10 hectares of parkland.
According to ElherdáltÖrökség.blog.hu, the plan was to develop a four-star wellness centre, a champagne winery and a winery in the castle hotel. Despite a billion forints in EU funding, the projects have failed to happen since 2006.
Abandoned private residence: memories living here
“This is how the value that others would be happy to receive becomes nothing,” writes one of the commenters.
Among the treasures left behind are a named mug, handmade clock, books, pictures of the deceased pet, and cheques to be paid. The insulin, the blood sugar monitor, the medicine, and mopedauto all go to the waste.
Illness, ambulance, death in hospital, no relatives. This is usually the reason why such houses can be found in Hungary, when the property is still worth millions of forints. If there are relatives of the inhabitants of such houses, they usually live abroad with their families, and it is too much energy and too big of a change to come back to Hungary and renovate or sell the property. For this reason, they choose not to care how many items – of great value to others – go to waste or get stolen by strangers.
The number of abandoned buildings in Hungary that are being ruined year after year is incalculable. Or rather, the number of people who let them fall into disrepair, be they politicians or ordinary people. These pictures are all designed to open people’s eyes – or at least to get them interested. Sometimes it would indeed cost hundreds of millions of forints to renovate a hospital or an orphanage – after decades of abandonment.
Source: kemma.hu, nepszava.hu, atlatszo.hu, elherdaltorokseg.blog.hu