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Orphanage, castle, slum flat: abandoned buildings in Hungary – PHOTOS
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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.
