Index – Culture – The Fontana house under the peak of demolition

Mihály Ráday, if I still had a classic show, it would be Our grandchildren will not see either He would surely march on the ruins of the Fontana fashion house, which began to be demolished in recent weeks (Váci utca 16. – Régi posta utca 17.). The building did not have outstanding architectural value, although it did not deserve an excavator. The post-socialist building knew one thing for sure, namely that it had burned onto our retina with its geometric shapes and accentuated edges in the few decades that came.

Why it had to be destroyed is a mystery, but it may also be due to the fact that modernist buildings built after 1945, mainly due to their lack of adornment, are rarely considered a value today. While elsewhere these properties are protected, at home their fate is mostly doomed, though it is a shame for them, knowing that the newly constructed building is often not as exciting as the one on death row.

The Fontana house owner, Müller Drogéria, received permission to partially demolish the iconic building and build a new planned residential house in its place. You have to wait two and a half years to see the full picture, but it is known that on the basement level, the ground floor and the first floor the company has its own store, 35 large apartments have been designed for the upper levels.

It is built and then it is destroyed

Starting in 1833, a three-story tenement house designed by József Hild was erected on the site, which was demolished in 1947 due to damage suffered during the Second World War. Instead, based on György Vedres’s plans, construction began in 1977. The property was first registered as Aranypók – Konsumex Divatáruház, then when it turned out that both Aranypók and KonsUmex is too big of a wall to run a luxury store, the two companies have gone independent, and the stores are beginning to operate in a boutique in-house system.

Fontana – The fashion house began to shine in 1984 with the motto. The five-story store attracted those who are receptive to fashion like a magnet, for its abundance of merchandise and fine porters, who tried to smuggle the delicacy of the Spider stores of the 20s and 30s to socialism, it filled the people from the capital with admiration. They were so curious about the glamor inside that after the opening, the lines snaked in front of the department store.

Váci utca was a fan of socialism anyway. It was renovated, its traffic calmed down and later it became a pedestrian street. Nowadays it is difficult to explain what made it very fashionable at the time, but for example, you could buy a foreign magazine for the first time, the Fontana store, the City Grill, the Adidas store and the first McDonald’s, which was often long. . before the entrance, those who wanted to enter lined up. Nap.hu accurately describes: “Socialism was a limited world where clearly established political regulations hindered freedom. Váci utca has relaxed the rules a bit. “

Fashion is an eternal cycle

This strategically important point of the city attracted fashionistas even when acquiring special belongings was a treasure hunt, because it was by no means as easy to obtain as it is today. We remember this period with Ági Pataki, who operated her legendary boutique on this street, who entered the public consciousness as Váci 10 with noble simplicity.

The success of Fontana is not disputed by Ági Pataki.

After the Luxury Store, the city was an important point, but today Váci utca is not as important as it was in the 80s.

– underlines, as life has completely changed, the culture of the small shop has disappeared and the focus has changed. According to him, the building under the peak of demolition was a large number at a time when there were boutiques in the city, but only scattered.

The three or four most famous boutiques worked with their own production base and factory, the clothes were made according to individual plans, which had a handmade romance, and it was exciting for foreign tourists to buy such things. However, there was nothing special about their operation, Nanushka, Aero are doing the same today, only of course to a higher level.

Fontana, according to the model-producer, was different in that it was a huge commercial house to boutiques, with foreign products, but it could not beat the small ones. They ran side by side for a while, but the boutique deaths were caused more by the big mammoths roaring after the regime change. When Ági Pataki asked him where to find acceptable clothes today, he said that he has everything, he does not buy, if he does, he buys Hungarian designer pieces, but he did not hide that he also has some pieces. of clothes from your own boutique that you like to wear.

“Fontana has outlived us, but it’s not safe, we may be taking a long break right now,” he concludes, suggesting that anything could happen, as he and his former business partner, Ilona Stremi, are still doing well today. And if anyone knows, they know: fashion is an eternal cycle, so it is possible that the boutique genre will flourish again. Given this, it is not surprising that more and more fast fashion chains are entering the key, which is due to the effects of the coronavirus.

(Cover image: Bodnár Patrícia / Index)