Monkey House (Budapest Zoo and Botanic Gardens)

The Monkey House, the smaller Rodents House, and the Kangaroo House enclose a small square. The buildings face this space with welcoming porches, open balconies, and terraces; even the large Monkey House connects to the square through smaller architectural elements. The open space has a domestic, human-scaled character.

The towers rising at both ends of the building and the dominant gables terminate a largely horizontal composition, interrupted by a prominent gabled roof. Parallels can be drawn with the continuously expanded and transformed castles of Transylvania, such as Sebesvár in Kalotaszeg. The keeper’s dwelling, with its narrow windows and lookout tower, and with its refined use of plaster and stone, provides a counterpoint to the more severe architecture of the Large Carnivores House standing behind it. The now-demolished central rear section was originally decorated with an Art Nouveau frieze depicting vegetal motifs and fruit-eating monkeys; this was removed during the first major alteration.

The Monkey House and the adjacent Large Carnivores House—with their large gables, narrow, elegant windows, and tall chimneys—may be compared to works of English domestic architecture by Philip Webb and C. F. A. Voysey.

In the early 1930s, the building was likely remodeled and expanded in accordance with Kós’s ideas. At that time, the outdoor enclosure at one end of the building and the semicircular greenhouse at its center were constructed. The building was renovated in 2004.