- Written by: Kordos Szabolcs
- Photos: Huszár Dávid
- Olvasási idő: 8 perc
The Villa of a World Traveller on Andrássy Avenue
Excerpt from the bestselling book New Secrets of a City – Budapest Legends, Legendary Budapest Citizens by Szabolcs Kordos (with photographs by Dávid Huszár).
There once lived in the city a true gentleman, a kind of lone wolf, admired in the circles of the aristocracy and the upper classes not only for his wealth, but also for his quick wit and personal integrity. One day, this gentleman decided he would travel around the world. And when he set his mind on something, he always accomplished it: by train, fragile boats, elephant and buffalo back, palanquins and steamships, he crossed mountains and valleys, discovering distant and unfamiliar worlds.
The paragraph above could easily serve as a synopsis of Jules Verne’s novel Around the World in Eighty Days, but this chapter is about Ferenc Hopp. While the novel’s protagonist, Phileas Fogg, existed only in Verne’s imagination, Ferenc Hopp – born in the same era as the writer – was a very real person who lived among us. His villa still stands today at 103 Andrássy Avenue, and together with its garden it welcomes visitors with open gates, telling stories about the distant East.
The story of Ferenc Hopp is a true success story from the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Almost something out of a fairy tale. Like so many other colourful figures of Pest’s social life, he was not a native Hungarian speaker and was not born in a Hungarian-speaking region, yet he proudly considered himself Hungarian and a citizen of Budapest. Hopp was born in 1833 in Fulnek, a town now belonging to the Czech Republic, as the son of a poor sacristan. Through a relative, he came to Pest as a child to become the apprentice of another proud Budapest citizen, Stefano Calderoni (István Calderoni), who was born in Lombardy, Italy. Their meeting reveals much about the rapidly developing, multicultural Pest of the Monarchy: a Moravian man whose mother tongue was German and a Lombard Italian managed a Hungarian company here and contributed to the growth of the city.
Calderoni arrived in Hungary with the army of the Monarchy, and he liked life here so much that he married and founded a successful optical company in the capital. He sold telescopes, opera glasses and, of course, spectacles in his shop on Gizella Square (today Vörösmarty Square). The Italian was not only skilled in optics but also understood marketing. The shop window of his downtown optical store was a true attraction; photographs of famous personalities and ordinary people seeking their fifteen minutes of fame were constantly changed in the display. Anyone who mattered in the city – or wanted to matter – appeared on the façade of Calderoni’s shop, and thousands of people viewed their faces every day.
“Being the father of daughters, Calderoni needed a reliable young companion to whom he could pass on his knowledge and his empire. He regarded the young apprentice as a son-like friend and protégé. Ferenc Hopp climbed every step of the company ladder and learned everything from the master of optics,” explained Ágnes Mészáros, the museum’s cultural manager, while walking through the villa’s garden. As was customary at the time, the young man was sent to Vienna for two years to study, and later he also worked in New York for four years. Although his employer there asked him to stay in America and become his business partner, Ferenc Hopp’s heart drew him back to his beloved mentor and to the Pest he loved. After his return home, the company was renamed Calderoni és Társa (Calderoni & Co.), and perhaps wishing to strengthen their family and business ties, the twenty-eight-year-old Ferenc married Stefano’s twenty-two-year-old daughter, Ida. Even by today’s Hollywood standards, the marriage ended with remarkable speed and drama: after only six months, the couple decided to divorce. We do not know the reasons; Hopp always handled his private affairs with discreet elegance. It is likely that the arranged marriage simply did not work.
Hopp és Calderoni kapcsolata nem szakadt meg a magánéleti kellemetlenségek ellenére sem, sőt, Stefano ígéretéhez híven rá bízta a vállalatot. Az örökös a kormányrúdhoz érve meghálálta a bizalmat: még nagyobb sikerek felé vezette a cég hajóját. Hopp ügyesen felismerte, hogy jókora lehetőségek rejlenek a kezdődő oktatási reformban. Elkezdett az okulárék, fényképezőgépek és vetítőgépek mellett immáron tanszereket is forgalmazni: vonalzókat, körzőket, földgömböket. Fenomenális üzleti húzás volt. Hopp beírta magát nemcsak a látszerészet, hanem a magyar oktatás történetébe is, közben pedig hatalmas vagyon birtokosává vált. Ideje volt, hogy újabb feladatok felé forduljon.
"Ferenc Hopp was fascinated by everything created by both humanity and nature; the world intrigued him. He felt the time was right to embark on his first round-the-world journey when he was nearly fifty. He planned everything meticulously and did not neglect his company. He provided his staff with an itinerary of where and when he would be staying, and they, in turn, sent him regular reports on business operations back home. He was somewhat like today’s digital nomads, though he had to make far greater efforts to keep a finger on the pulse of daily business," recounted a museum staff member. The first journey lasted over a year: traveling from Fiume across the Mediterranean and through the Suez Canal—stopping in Egypt and Yemen—he crossed the Indian Ocean and passed Ceylon to reach Australia. From there, he visited Indonesia (the island of Java, Jakarta), Singapore, and Rangoon before touring major Indian cities such as Bombay, Delhi, and Calcutta; he ascended to Darjeeling on the slopes of the Himalayas, followed by the Far East: Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe, Kyoto, and Osaka. After sailing to America and traveling through San Francisco, Denver, and Washington, he returned to the European continent.
Over the course of his life, Hopp circumnavigated the globe five times; he was the first person to purchase a round-trip ticket for the entire length of the newly opened—and at the time, adventurous—Congo railway. He traversed all of South America and Siberia, and was repeatedly captivated by the intense exoticism of the Far East. "He always used whatever mode of transport was available locally: he rode elephants and buffalo carts, traveled by steamer—laden with ammunition—along African rivers (the Nile and the Congo) and across the ocean, and had himself carried up to the Great Wall of China in a sedan chair. He even had his photograph taken at the Wall and brought back a brick as a souvenir. He never complained about the conditions. He took many photographs, and the reality of the world at that time emerges clearly from his letters and later lectures. Japan was his favorite destination; he visited the country on several occasions. He collected everything he could during his travels—the first item in his collection was an ostrich egg—but later he selected art objects, carvings, ceramics, and decorative items—especially pieces of Asian art—with an increasingly keen eye," explained Ágnes Mészáros.
After his ill-fated marriage, the globetrotting adventurer never married again, living as an independent man in the villa on Andrássy Avenue that he had purchased in 1885—following his first major journey. He bought the house ready-made; it had been standing since 1876 and—like other villas in the outer section of Andrássy Avenue—was originally designed as a summer residence. The globetrotter conceived the entire garden himself, inspired by one of his experiences in Asia. On the island of Java, the Dutch viceroy had hosted the world-traveling gentleman at his palace, a residence that featured a charming, lush, peaceful, and exotic garden. It was this garden in Buitenzorg that inspired Hopp to transform his own backyard into a similar earthly paradise. He displayed sculptures, a small pavilion, glowing lanterns, and mementos from his distant travels there. The ginkgo tree—which Hopp himself had brought home as a sapling—still stands in the center of the garden to this day.
“‘The exotic garden alone is one of the most interesting attractions of our capital,’” quoted a contemporary source from the volume The Resident of the Buitenzorg Villa, a book about the life of Ferenc Hopp. Another memoir recalls the garden of the villa on Andrássy Avenue in the following way: “There once stood a playful labyrinth with a small lake and a bridge connecting its hilly banks, imitating Japan, and leading to a thatched, three-sided open pavilion. From time to time, it filled with guests among whom the host could imagine himself once again in the farthest reaches of the East.”
Most of the artworks currently visible in the garden are replicas. The museum staff moved the originals indoors, as the weather would have destroyed them over time. One exception is my personal favourite, the Moon Gate, which – unlike European gates – does not separate, but rather connects, invites and encourages visitors to enter. Come in, guest, and see what a beautiful world awaits you here! The circular shape of the gate symbolizes completeness and harmony. Those familiar with Chinese characters can read the inscription above the entrance, which says “Ferenc Hopp’s house”, while beneath it, also written in Mandarin characters, there is a charming message: “May joy flow endlessly around my gate.” The latter says much about the outlook of the villa’s owner.
“He must have been a friendly, warm-hearted person who – although this was not common at the time – smiled in every photograph. He happily showed his garden and his enormous collection to visitors who came to see him”, the expert explained. Ferenc Hopp set out on his final journey around the world at the age of eighty (!) – a trip that lasted almost a year. He was tireless; his thirst for knowledge, curiosity and sense of adventure seemed endless. In his time, he was considered the most widely travelled Hungarian. Although he wrote his letters and personal notes in German throughout his life, he consciously identified as Hungarian everywhere he went, and it was here, in Budapest, that he found his final home. Wherever he travelled, he always returned here.
Entering the villa, we find ourselves in Hopp’s former private spaces, which have long since become home to the library’s collection. The owner lived on the ground floor, while the reception room was located on the lower level. Fortunately, several photographs of this room have survived, allowing us to imagine what it once looked like. Naturally, the richly decorated room was enhanced not only by comfortable furniture but also by works of art. The study and bedroom opened from here, while the entire upper floor was dedicated to his collection. The collection he purchased during his travels – numbering around four thousand objects at the time of his death – was displayed in his villa. People arrived from all over Hungary and from around the world to admire his salon. The space was small, so the many artworks welcomed visitors in a dense, almost overwhelming arrangement. The highest, second-floor level of the villa was added to the original building during the socialist era.
Ferenc Hopp set out on his final journey in 1919, at the age of eighty-six. Sensing the approach of the end of his life, he had to ensure the safety of his company, but even more importantly, his unparalleled collection. He left part of his business empire to his cousin, while entrusting his artworks, among others, to the experts of the Museum of Fine Arts, with whom he had previously developed a relationship of trust and friendship. However, the political events and the rise of the Hungarian Soviet Republic forced him to reconsider his plans. He knew that if large proletarian families were moved into his villa by supporters of the dictatorship, the collection would be lost and destroyed. He considered the safest solution to be offering the villa and the entire collection to the Hungarian state, on the condition that the building would operate as a museum and the collection would be made accessible to the public. Hopp lived long enough to witness the fall of the Hungarian Soviet Republic and the official decision establishing the Museum of East Asian Art. The document was delivered to the elderly world traveller together with a letter of gratitude. Three days after opening the envelope, he died. He knew that his life’s work was safe.
Today, the building operates as the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Asiatic Arts. Its former living quarters house an Orientalist library for researchers, while the art collection has grown from four thousand to thirty thousand objects. During opening hours, the garden is freely accessible. The great traveller would perhaps be happy to see that more than a century after his death, families are still entering through the Moon Gate and, for a moment, travelling in their imagination to the distant East.
