Maros-Torda County Hall, Marosvásárhely I.

In July 1909, Toroczkai Wigand Ede invited Kós Károly to collaborate on the competition announced for the seat of Maros–Torda County. The building was intended for a site opposite the Town Hall, on the hilltop area between the intersection of Mikszáth Kálmán Street and Köteles Sámuel Street and the Torna Garden, in the vicinity of today’s Unirii (Egyesülés) Square. The two architects maintained a close professional relationship until 1911. For Wigand, the competition represented a particularly important opportunity to realize a large-scale urban public building, while within Kós’s oeuvre the project can be regarded as one of his most significant independent public-building concepts.

The design submitted under the motto Zandirhám was based on a Transylvanian palace type organized around a closed central courtyard, articulated by romantic corner towers and balconies. Circulation was arranged along an internal courtyard gallery, while the rooms opened outward. The building featured two principal façades: a more restrained, symmetrically composed administrative entrance, and a more picturesque, asymmetrical representative entrance, dominated by a large tower and the mass of the assembly halls. This duality resulted in an orderly appearance toward the everyday point of entry, and a more romantic, painterly character when viewed from the hillside.

The competition results were announced on 30 September 1909.

“Zandirhám.”

An artistically outstanding work. The perspective drawings accompanying the façade demonstrate excellent artistic sensibility. However, the plan layout is flawed. Its greatest shortcoming is the narrow entrance and secondary staircase on the side of the great hall. On the storeys beneath the great hall, several poorly lit rooms are planned.

Source: Magyar Építőművészet, Vol. VIII, no. 3, March 1910, p. 18.

Six drawings prepared for the competition are known from the publication in Magyar Építőművészet (two perspective views, three elevations, and one first-floor plan), of which three elevation drawings survive at a scale of 1:200.

Overall, the Kós–Wigand proposal strongly reflected the modern architectural aspirations of its period; however, due to its functional responses to the complex site conditions, it did not fully convince the decision-makers.

In 1941, further sketches were produced for the Maros–Torda County Hall in connection with the Town Hall, which had by then been erected in a Neo-Byzantine style. These later designs are still considered relevant today.

* Zandirhám appears in the forged Csíki Székely Chronicle as a rabonbán (tribal leader) of the Székelys at the time of Árpád’s arrival.