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India House

AND INDIAN EMBASSY IN BUDAPEST

Story of two houses

Buzavirag Utca 14 and 16, July 26, 2021

Indian Embassy

When Zsuzsa Vancza came to the Indian Embassy in Budapest in November 1984 to sign the condolence book opened after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, her heart was beating very fast. No one else standing in the queue with her could have the remotest inkling of what was going on in Zsuzsa ‘s mind. She had come, of course, to sign the condolence book, but also to get an opportunity to see the Indian Embassy from inside, once again. This was the house where she had lived as a child between Sept 1948 and Apr 1951, till her family was thrown out by the Hungarian police after that property was taken over by the Hungarian govt upon nationalization. Vanczas were given an apartment at 11 Torocko Street in lieu of their house. Zsusza was just one year old then. Her mother had died of a heart attack in 1946 and her father died ten years later in April 1956.

Zsuzsa’s father Joszef Vancza had paid a substantial sum of 105000 forints to Bartha Gyorgy for purchasing the property. Even though Joszef ran a successful business selling bakery / confectionary products, and was also the discoverer of famous Vancza baking powder, it was Bartha Gyorgy who proved to be smarter in sensing business opportunity. Bartha had bought the house for just 40000 forints from Bela Szenasy (a paper merchant) in Feb 1948 and was quick to sense impending trouble since the start of nationalization process in Hungary.

The plot no 14 on Buzavirag Utca (which used to be the upper part of a street known as Törökvész-dűlő) was first purchased by Bela Szenasy and his wife Rozsa Piroska in 1940. They engaged architect Gyula Szentandrási to build a Art Deco style family house for them. Other architects and engineers who were involved include Vilmos Urbányi, Pál Sávoly, and Gyula Wágner. The house suffered some damage during the siege of Budapest in 1944-45, and so Bartha Gyorgy bought this slightly damaged house and got it renovated with the help of architect Elemér Bíró. Joszef Vancza, who then used to own a three story house on Gellert Hill, was looking around to buy a house for his family as his villa was destroyed in the bombings in Jan 1945. Vancza ended up buying Buzavirag Utca 14 property from Bela Szenasy, but could enjoy the house only till 1951. (source: http://www.budaipolgar.hu/helytortenet/indiainagykovetseg.html)

Indian Embassy has since been the owner of this house. In 2010, the Amrita Shergil Cultural Centre was built as an extension of the main building. Lajos Hartvig, a DLA architect and lecturer at the Department of Residential Design at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics was the architect who designed the cultural centre.

India House

The India House, which stands at Buzavirag Utca 16, also has a history dating to 1940, when Hans Riemann bought the land for 26.000 Pengő. The front entrance of the house then was on Ferenchegyi Út which passed through the forest behind. This street no longer exists and has been subsumed in the forest. If you read the declassified documents of CIA, it can be seen that Hans Riemann was a German spy. It therefore made sense for him to keep the front entrance at the back of the building since nobody could see the persons visiting or going out of the house. He was paid 80,000 Pengő monthly from Germany to run the economic spy network called Abwehr I-W.

Riemann disappeared In September 1944, then never to be seen again. .It is not known who the occupants were between 1944 and 1956. The ownership of the house was transferred to the Soviet Union in November 1946 as war reparations. The ownership returned to Hungary in March 1950, after intergovernmental agreement between USSR and Hungary. The Govt of India rented the property from 1957 as Ambassador’s residence and finally bought it in 1987

INDIA HOUSE GARDEN

A botanist paradise 26 July 2021

Here are details of a few:--

1. Kislevelű hárs (Hungarian) Tilla Cordata (Latin) This linden tree occupies a prominent place near the terrace. About 80-90 years old, it has seen a lot of history of India House. It is 'small leaved linden' tree; other varieties include silver leaved linden, big leaved linden, etc. It is national tree of Czech Republic and Slovak Republic.

Black marks are pesticide injection marks

2. The tree required consultation with a tree doctor 4-5 years ago, who had to drill four holes at the bottom of the trunk (visible as black marks in the picture)

3. It is a deciduous tree. Note the heart shaped leaves.

4. There were so many bees drawn to the fragrant flower in 2020 that we thought there was a bee hive in the tree itself. The seeds are contained in brown colour nuts like fruits. The seeds and young leaves are used in making herbal tea, which is considered useful in cough, etc. One can also get linden honey made by bees from this tree's flowers.

5. bibircses nyír (Hungarian) Betula Pendula (Latin) This tree is about 30-35 years old. Hungary's eastern part has many cities like Nyiregyhaza, Nyirbator, Nyirbeltek, Nyirlugos, Nyiradony, Nyiracsad, Nyirabrany, Nyirmartonfalva, etc., which derive their names from abundance of this tree. It is Finland's national tree.

6. Also called Silver Birch, because of its characteristic bark. In spring, one can take out the mild sugary sap which oozes out if a hole is drilled in the trunk. It can be used to make syrup. It can also be fermented into a wine, I am told.

7. Örökzöld bangita (Hungarian) Viburnum rytidophyllum (Latin) An evergreen ornamental shrub, at the moment about 4 feet tall. It has dark green coarse oval leaves, giving almost a rubber like appearance. Small blue berries appear in June, which then turn to red and then black by September. Smal white flowers appear in bunches, starting from the same point and then opening up at the top.

8. Another close up of evergreen bangita.

9. Kajszibarack (Hungarian) Prunus armeniaca (Latin) The garden has several apricot trees. This one is about 3 meters tall. The name armeniaca comes from the fact that this plant is native to Armenia.

10. But the apricots that have been harvested during the last few years in the garden have not been of very good quality.

11. Korai Juhar (Hungarian) Acer Platanoides (Latin) This is another large tree, about 20 years old. It stands guard over the eastern corner of the garden. A decidous tree, which is used in creating maple. Also knows as Norway maple tree.

Now, can you identify the following? ..