Czuba-Durozier Mansion, Budapest-Budafok, Romantic-style family villa in Budafok, Budapest, Hungary
Czuba-Durozier Mansion is a French-influenced residential building in Budafok containing approximately 32 rooms distributed across multiple floors. The structure was subdivided into residential units during the 20th century and houses multiple households today.
W. H. Czuba-Durozier, a French craftsman who settled in Hungary, built the villa between 1884 and 1887 for his family, using elements of French Romantic architecture. After his death in the 1920s the cognac factory in the basement closed and the family sold the building. Several changes of owner followed until it passed to Kálmán Bathó, a Budafok notary; it was nationalised in 1950, when Budafok was annexed to Budapest, and divided into flats, first 8 and later 16.
The basement housed a cognac factory that W. H. Czuba-Durozier set up together with Gyula Ulbrich. The street itself, Péter-Pál utca, is known for its long row of wine cellars, so the building sits in a district of cellars and drink production. The factory closed soon after Czuba-Durozier died in the 1920s.
The building is today a residential apartment complex, so interior access is restricted and visits must be arranged with residents. The exterior can be viewed from the street and displays the original French architectural style.
The most conspicuous surviving decoration is the ornate frieze above the window of the closed first-floor balcony on the three-storey tower: between two sphinxes holding candelabra sits a crowned shield with a fleur-de-lis. The empty statue niches on the main facade and the two stone lions flanking the arched gate on Plébánia Street are also worth spotting.
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