Epreskert Art Colony

Among the artists who worked and lived there the most important were sculptors György Zala and Adolf Huszár, and painter Árpád Feszty.

The colony occupied an oblong shaped block bounded by Bajza, Lendvay, Epreskert (after 1900 Munkácsy Mihály) and Kmety Street.

In the first round only one plot was apportioned to painter Gyula Aggházy who built a house on the corner of Epreskert and Kmety Streets in 1884.

In 1886 three plots in Lendvay Street were leased by the municipality to sculptors György Zala, Gyula Donáth and Antal Szécsi.

Rising property prices in the first decade of the 20th century caused a strong demand for plots suitable for building private villas.

After the war many of ruined buildings were demolished and the plots on Lendvay Street (the former sculptor's row) were acquired by the Soviet authorities.

There were three other ateliers in the Epreskert academy campus nearby which belonged to painters Gyula Benczúr and Károly Lotz, and sculptor Alajos Stróbl.

The façade was decorated with reliefs by Gyula Donáth and György Zala (both artists lived in the colony) together with the coat-of-arms of the Feszty and Jókai families.

Ministers, politicians, actors and actresses, curators, writers and painters gathered regularly in the small Venetian palace on Bajza Street.

After the museum moved out the palace was converted into storage place for a natural history collection, and later an atelier for sculptor Pál Kő in the 1990s.