Anker Palace, Eclectic-style insurance palace in Terézváros, Budapest, Hungary
Anker Palace is an eclectic-style office palace at Anker köz 1–3, next to Deák Ferenc Square in Terézváros, Budapest. Its facade has Doric columns, Zsolnay ceramics and reliefs by Zsigmond Kisfaludy Stróbl, and two statues of women with outstretched arms stand on the roof. The building has been unused since 2013 because its condition became dangerous.
In 1907 the Viennese Anker Life and Pension Insurance Company held a competition for its Budapest headquarters; Ignác Alpár's design won. Construction began in 1908 under architect Lajos Várnai and was completed in 1910. The open arcade now called Anker köz originally belonged to the building. After 1945 it housed the Eastern European Insurance company, and from 1953 it also served as a council rental building.
The Galileo Circle, a student and intellectual group, was based in the curved Anker köz alley behind the palace from 1910 to 1919. The building's ground level originally served as an open bazaar arcade, the Anker-udvar, attached to the offices.
The building sits in a central location near Deák Ferenc Square and is easily reached on foot from the metro stations. You can view the exterior architecture from various angles as you walk around the square.
Under the pediment, a faint inscription still reads "Élet és járadék – ANKER Biztosító Társaság", naming the insurance company that commissioned the building. The large central dome served as the studio of the painter Konstantin Buna.
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