Poultry Yard (Budapest Zoo and Botanic Gardens)
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“The Poultry Yard may be of particular interest to the metropolitan public, as it allows for the breeding of a wide variety of species. Turkeys, chickens, and ducks are kept within the framework of a small rural farmstead; artificial incubation and the rational utilization of poultry can be demonstrated here. Moreover, since pigeon breeding also belongs in such a house, dovecotes will be arranged in the yard and on the eaves. Our architect-designers conceived this building as a Székely house, inhabited by a rural family responsible for all the activities desirable here. This person may also engage in beekeeping; in both traditional and newer glass-frame hives, the public will be able to study the life of bees. We also envisaged dedicating a room in this house to silk production, and possibly to the presentation of other economically important insects as well.”
— Adolf Lendl: The New Zoo, in Magyar Építőművészet, Vol. VII, no. 6, 1909.
The Poultry Yard represents a Székely rural house and its courtyard. It consists of two buildings: the keeper’s house and the apiary. As early as 1909, a description and a perspective view of the building were published in the Fővárosi Közlöny; however, the construction drawings were completed only in the summer of 1910.
After the Second World War, the complex was partially demolished and altered. Between 1998 and 1999 it was reconstructed in its original form, together with its associated auxiliary structures.
Bibliography
Lendl Adolf: Az új állatkert. In: Magyar Építőművészet VII./6. 1909 (1–16.)
Györgyi Dénes: Az állatkertről. In: Magyar Építőművészet, IV./10–12. 1912. (1–44.)
Gall, Anthony: Kós Károly műhelye – tanulmány és adattár. Mundus Magyar Egyetemi Kiadó, Budapest, 2002 (152–154.) [1909-1a]
Fabó Beáta–Anthony Gall: „Napkeletről jöttem nagy palotás rakott városba kerültem”. Kós Károly világa 1907–1914. Budapest Főváros Levéltára, 2014 (92–95.)
