The rich ornamentation of Art Nouveau, be it a strutting peacock, a stained-glass window or a colourful majolica, immediately draws the eye of the viewer, and injects a little warmth on a cold January day. Waiting for the 76 trolley on Izabella utca, a façade diagonally opposite might capture your attention so completely that you forget about boarding the bus! This is Lindenbaum House – the first Art Nouveau building in Budapest.

The beginning of any new movement is met by criticism by those who prefer the old ways. Art Nouveau was no exception. The construction of Lindenbaum House was not overwhelmingly welcomed by the general public, who saw the Art Nouveau mania sweeping the continent with grumbling scepticism.

Architectural duo Frigyes Spiegel and Fülöp Weinréb, whose buildings along Izabella utca were recognisable by their rich façades, partnered in 1897 to construct the Lindenbaum houses, so named after the oil magnates Sándor and Győző Lindenbaum who commissioned them.


These new structures broke the mould with crawling vines, women of gold, prancing hounds and wriggling snakes wrapped around the trunks of trees, bringing an explosion of colour to an otherwise uniform cityscape.

Today you can admire one building, but originally there were two such eye-catching structures. Standing at Izabella utca 94, you turn your head to see its weather-beaten twin at no.96, crying out for much-needed renovation.


Both were damaged in World War II, and only no.94 was lucky enough to be renovated a few years ago. Walking through the city, you might well stumble upon other buildings of significant architectural value awaiting such miraculous transformations.

According to the original plans, the two houses displayed the four elements – earth, water, fire, air. Today only the motifs for earth and air have survived, but those who look closely might be able to see where the crumbling neighbouring façade once sported a dragon breathing fire, or the small coral fragment left here from the aquatic world.

The paradise tree with its apple and serpent is an allegory of the Fall of Man, while its roots, the animals, the floral motifs and the golden female figure, as well as the brown and green colour scheme, are all symbolic of the earth. The frieze on the third floor of the celestial sphere, including the sun disc, the moon and the stars, as well as the birds and shiny silver female figures with their hands raised, represent the air.

The architectural partners wanted to create something completely new in the midst of the millennium construction, and they certainly succeeded. Following the completion of Lindenbaum house, several Art Nouveau apartment buildings were planned around bustling Pest, including one on Üllői út where the writer Dezső Kosztolányi lived.