Weidlich House

The Weidlich Palace was built in 1911, a late Art Nouveau style building in the centre of Miskolc at 19 Széchenyi Street, while its rear front faces Dr. Antall József Park. Its designer was the firm of Alfréd Hajós, the Hajós and Villányi company. The building has been under national heritage protection since 2007.

History

The client, merchant Pál Weidlich, arrived in Miskolc in 1881, and thanks to his talent he was already one of the city's biggest taxpayers in the 1920s and 1930s. On this part of Széchenyi Street, even at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries there were narrow but elongated plots of late medieval allocation, where in closed‑row development mostly one‑storey houses stood and at most a long extending courtyard wing. The merging of two such plots (one of which had a Neo‑Baroque building) made it possible to surround the courtyard of the four‑storey house with a closed courtyard, which is indicated by the name Weidlich‑courtyard on the building's main façade. The designer was the Hajós and Villányi company, which received the commission after the success of Miskolc's first three‑storey house, the headquarters of Borsodmegyei Takarékpénztár Rt. The building permit was obtained by Weidlich in March 1911. Construction proceeded quickly; by the end of November some of the shops were already occupied, on the penultimate day of the year the Apollo cinema opened in the cellar, and by spring 1912 every resident and shop‑renter could take possession of the new rental palace. The building was the city's first department store and at that time the largest rental house, containing 24 shop units and 30 apartments.

The emblem of the Hercz factory in Miskolc is found on the cast-iron columns, or on the forecourt, and on the canal cover in front of the gate. The elegant wrought-iron gate that can be lowered into the cellar is the work of the Demeter brothers, a significant building locksmith workshop in Miskolc. The building's symmetrical, richly decorated façade featured a pair of towers, with a tympanum between them. During the cityscape planning of the 1960s, the two tower caps, which were judged to be out of style, were demolished in accordance with the architectural taste of the time. In 2011 the building's façade was renovated, and the parapet was rebuilt so that the tower caps could be reinstalled later.

Description of the palace

On the main façade the commercial and residential parts are sharply separated. The two‑storey commercial part is opened by steel‑frame glazed portals. The entrance opening in the centre of the courtyard spans two levels – the mezzanine level steps back like a ledge from the façade plane – and is finished with a dome‑shaped cover commonly used in turn‑of‑the‑century architecture, with steel structures on both sides for placing the shop tenants' advertising signs. The three levels of the residential part are more closed. The central axis is emphasized by a three‑axis, three‑storey architrave that spans three elevations, to which on the second floor a loggia is attached on both sides, supported by paired columns on the outer edge; on its top, at the third‑floor level, a balcony was created with a late Art Nouveau wrought‑iron decorative railing.

On the outer axes of the second floor, the two windows have a corniced, complex line‑designed, ornamental eyebrow with an oval decoration framed by a centrally placed formatted string. The other openings on the façade sections on both sides of the main balcony have no cornices on the second and third floors, only a continuous eyebrow ledge runs above the third‑floor windows. These two façade sections are entirely divided by horizontal string courses. On the fourth floor, on both sides of the main balcony, a balcony of the same size as the balcony projection runs in front of the façade, with a decorative railing. The profiled frames of the two openings also frame the brick‑shaped sculpted eyebrow field, so the frame reaches the balcony railing. Between the openings, the wall surfaces are tiled with dark and light brown toned tiles set upright. On the second and third floors of the main balcony, the window arrangement is identical. On each side there is a triple‑linked window on the central axis, the two outer panes of the linked window being narrower. The windows of the two levels are intersected by lintel bands, whose corniced heads hold putti bearing abundance symbols and similar motifs. On the fourth floor of the main balcony the wall corner turns in a curve. On the curved section there are three elongated windows, while the central axis features a loggia‑type arrangement with a basket‑arched closure. On each side of the loggia there is a large medallion with a sculptural depiction of heroes. Above the loggia, an arched inscription “Weidlich‑udvar” is visible, above which a robust cornice reminiscent of a timpano runs.

The Black Dog Spice Shop

The Black Dog spice shop, founded by the Mahr family in 1756, originally operated at the present‑day Széchenyi Street 35. Weidlich Pál first went to Miskolc in 1881, where, thanks to his Viennese experience, he became the manager of a long‑standing shop. In 1890, through scholarship‑funded travels, he gained much experience and built contacts. Returning, on 24 January 1891 he registered his company and took over the Black Dog. The shop’s most profitable line was the sale of Tokaji wines, with which it also achieved international success. The business became the largest spice trade in Upper Hungary, soon developing into a wholesale operation. An important element of this was the construction of the commercial building. On the ground floor, on the right side, was the spice, wine, mineral water and seed trade addressed to “the Black Dog”. The Black Dog statue serving the company was moved on 21 December 1911 from the then‑existing shop at Széchenyi Street 32, so the completion of the building can also be dated to this time, to Christmas. The successor of the Weidlich spice trade after nationalisation, the Belvárosi Csemege, operated until January 1983.

Shops located in the Weidlich House

In April 1911, Weidlich Pál advertised the lease of 17 shop premises in the courtyard of the commercial building in the newspaper Ellenzék.

On the ground floor of the building, on the right side, was Weidlich's "Black Dog" shop.