It's in the detail

Sunday morning dawned bright, breezy and sunny, which after an evening spent drinking wine and slivovica with friends did not describe me, so I thought that a walk around the corner to the local CBA corner supermarket would be a good idea.

I decided to take my camera with me, and in the two or 300 yards between our apartment and the supermarket I reflected on the details of Budapest's buildings. A local colleague had once told me that in Budapest you must look down and look up at the same time: down because the pavements are sometimes in a poor state of repair, and up because of the magnificent details in the buildings.

Aulich utca

The first delight is on one of our neighbouring buildings on Aulich utca. This is a classic secessionist building but with a beautiful tiled image of a woman picking apples high up on the building's parapet. Its story, I have no idea.

Frieze on Bathory utca

The next point of interest was on Bathory utca. Here, immediately opposite the supermarket is a building that is fairly undistinguished apart from a painted frieze depicting some classical scene immediately under its eaves. Again, its history I have no idea about.

Bullet holes tell what story?

And then on the next street corner some more sobering detail. Bullet holes around a fourth floor window. When does this date from, 1945 or 1956? What is the story? Who was firing from the window? Who was firing from the street? What happened?

Fine art and human suffering side-by-side. The devil is certainly in the detail.