Erkel16

Our story

                     Many people turn up here at "Erkel 16" day by day. Many people come and go; they see the building, the large courtyard, the dentist's offices, and a few more people who are busily walking up and down the U-shaped corridor of the building. Maybe few of the patients have been there in the old days and remember the building, but many of them do not know what stories these walls would tell if they could tell... but they can't. So it's our job to say as much as we can. It's not just a building; lives began and ended here.

          Békéscsaba and Gyula are not separated by a great distance. Gyula is the second most populous city in Békés County, with historical places such as the Gyula Castle, the Town Hall and the Centennial Confectionery. With historical names like Ferenc Erkel.

József Erkel and the Erkel family came to Gyula in 1807 at the invitation of the Wenckheim family. Ferenc Erkel was born on November 7, 1810, in Németgyula, attended elementary school in Magyargyula, and continued his high school studies in Oradea/Nagyvárad. On the other hand, he always spent his vacations at his birthplace. On August 10, 1839, he married Adél Andler, with whom he had 11 children including Sándor Erkel.

It is believed that at first Ferenc Erkel did not notice great musical talent in Sándor, but the boy learned to play the piano on his own, so around the age of 10, his father also recognized the artistic spark in him. He was taught music theory and composition by composer Mihály Mosonyi between 1856‒1861. In 1866, he met his future wife, Róza Szabó, a native of Újkígyós with French roots, who married Sándor after the death of her husband, the baritone István Tanner.

A few months after his retirement, on October 14, 1900, he died of another stroke in Békéscsaba. His body arrived in Budapest on October 16. In 1993, in Békéscsaba, as part of the March 15 city celebration, a memorial plaque was inaugurated in honor of Sándor Erkel and Róza Szabó on Erkel u. On the wall of house number 16.

They both died in this house. The house belonged to Róza Szabó's relatives, the singer lived there even before the loss of her first husband, then still as Tannerné Róza Szabó.

After Rózá Szabó, we don't know exactly what happened to the building, but we do know that a certain Mrs. Kováts lived here in the mid-1900s, from whom most of the house was taken during communism, but she was allowed to remain here stay in the back apartment. The other parts were cut up and other families were moved here. This is how the corner of Erkel and Tessedik became a residential building for many families.

The entrance then and now. We tried to preserve the original nature of the building, its strict entrance gate.

Not so long ago, a lady was here who told us that she still had some old pictures that she would like to send us. We were very happy to receive her pictures and lovely memories, this is how we got these.

The inner courtyard then and now; several families lived here; what is now a dental laboratory and a dentist's office was once an apartment.

"Corner room" - The room currently operating as a dental laboratory actually hosted family gatherings at the time. As we know this was the room in which Sándor Erkel died in 1900.