CORNER HOUSE

Corner house at the intersection of Andrássy út and Népköztársaság útja. Those familiar with recent Hungarian history can determine precisely, on the basis of the title, the verbal paradox concealed in it, just when the etching would have been made. It is not easy to decide whether the picture represents a corner house, or a courtyard, if the lines indicate convex or concave forms. We might call it a question of viewpoint, entrusting judgment to the psychologists: whether we were born for freedom, or rather for slavery.

Andrássy út (street) and Népköztársaság útja (People's Republic Street) are the same. Budapest's most elegant boulevard was first called Sugár út (Radial Strasse) in 1883, Andrássy út in 1886 (Gyula Andrássy was a Hungarian prime minister and statesman), Sztálin út (1950) the Magyar Ifjúság útja (Hungarian Street of Youth) in October 1956, Népköztársaság útja (People's Republic) in 1957, returning to the name of its founder, Andrássy in 1990.