The mid-19th century appearance of shopwindows in Pest (1847–1860)

Text: Violetta Hidvégi

Riesinger Ferenc portálterve a Váci utcai Nákó-házhoz, 1954 © BFL

Part and whole. A constituent of a building which is still an independent unit in itself. Their nicest variations blend with the facades, whilst their disproportionateness may ruin the overall impression of a building. Being subject to licensing, the regulations of shopwindows allow to survey the practices of portal constructions of decades, possibly educational for contemporary architecture. Compared to Classicism, Romanticism had the tendency to prioritize doors and windows, as their refined designs rich in details more suited prevailing tastes. This was the time when double windows opening inward-inward appeared, just like the shopwindows between glazings pulled apart on ground floors which reached their climax with Historicism.