The Róth Miksa Memorial Building was closed for August but now it is open again. Oddly, more foreigners are visiting it than Hungarian - Róth Miksa's glassworks and mosaics are world-famous and the memorial house reveals a lot about this artist and his life.
The Royal Palace, the St Stephen Basilica, the palace of the National Bank, the Parliament and the Gresham palace - all and many more boast glassworks by Róth, all of which was born here. Miksa Róth (1865-1944) is considered the greatest Hungarian master of stained glass and mosaics. Upon purchasing the house in 1911, originally the possession of his family, he had it rebuilt. That is when the three-story workshop was also constructed on the opposite side of the courtyard.
History however obstructed the functioning of the workshop: the first World War in 1914, revolutions, the Versailles Treaty, the Nazi takeover and finally World War 2. Though the Róths could remain in the street front building, the workshop was first turned into a German, later Russian military plant, and eventually the Academy of Political Officers moved in.
Bejewelling the city, Róth mosaics are perhaps lesser known. The mosaic decorating Török Bank’s facade on Szervita square, still the largest piece in a public space in Budapest, or the ground floor mosaic in the Music Academy come to mind. Róth experimented with eosin tiles from the Zsolnay factory, used opalescent Tiffany glass in his mosaics, and developed a new method to be able to execute Ödön Lechner’s free contour floral design on the Postal Savings Bank in Hold street.
The permanent exhibition at the memorial house gives an overview of the distinct periods of Roth’s oeuvre. Visitors may marvel at beautiful stained glass designs in historicist, Art Nouveau and art deco styles. Inclined to cooperate with other notable artists of his time, Roth’s joint woks with József Rippl-Rónai, Sándor Nagy, Géza Maróti pep up the exhibit. An exceptional insight is offered to the visitor by Miksa Róth’s almost intact turn of the century apartment, preserving the grandeur of Budapest’s then bourgeoisie.
The most spacious and lightest spot, the top floor of the separate building held the stained glass workshop, beneath which was the mosaic workshop, the leading halls; with further workshops and glass storage rooms on the ground floor. Miksa Róth was in the possession of an astounding amount of glass. He continually bought antique and cathedral glass from German, Austrian, and English glass works. Tiffany glass from the US kept on arriving to his workshop from overseas by the crates. On average he stored 200-300 different types at a time.
Museum's homepage: http://www.rothmuzeum.hu/htm/22.htm
Opening hours: between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. Closed on Monday
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