Stop 5 · Buildings Walk
Deutsch Palace
Corner of Deák Ferenc and Dózsa utca · 1902 · facade by Ödön Lechner
Ödön Lechner gave a Szeged apartment block a green, blue and orange Zsolnay outfit. It had bathtubs when those were still a novelty, and later a puppet theatre.
It was built between 1900 and 1902 to plans by Mihály Erdélyi. The majolica facade and the two staircases were drawn by Ödön Lechner, at Erdélyi's request. You can see the influence of Lechner's main work, the Postal Savings Bank in Budapest.
The green-blue-orange colour scheme was considered daring at the time. Zsolnay ceramics, a wavy cornice with fringe motifs beneath it, and trailing folk-art flowers on the walls. The balcony railings, the banisters and the wrought-iron gate are lovely too.
It counted as a modern house: the flats had a water heater and a bathtub, which was not yet common then.
Until the mid-1980s it housed Szeged's Puppet Theatre. A plaque on the house next door quotes Gyula Juhász's poem “Dózsa feje” (Dózsa's Head), and at the end of Dózsa utca stands Pista Dankó's marble statue.
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- True1900–1902; the facade and the two staircases are the work of Ödön Lechner.
- Half true“A Lechner house.” Half true: Mihály Erdélyi designed the building, Lechner the facade and the staircases. The REÖK booklet also names Sándor Baumgarten alongside Lechner.
- TrueThe Puppet Theatre was here until the mid-1980s.