Miscellaneous pictures - Balatonfüred, Hungary

Location:

GPS coordinates: Latitude 46°57'22", Longitude 17°53'41" (N46 57.37 - E17 53.68) Map

"Mocó", a bronze sculpture represents a sailboat and a young sailor

Created by István János Nagy, 2009

The so-called "mocó" belongs to the Hungarian nautical traditions. Those youngsters are called like this who want to become true sailors or boatmen and who do anything for this. They always bustle around the harbor, help where they can and hope that if they proved to be useful they will be admitted on a boat to learn the sailor's profession. (The "mocó" around the boatsmen is a little bit like the "rookie" in the army.) The sculpture on the courtyard of the Hotel Silver Resort in Balatonfüred was created by the Hungarian sculptor István János Nagy in 2009, and represents a "mocó".

Statue of a bathing woman in front of the "Great Restaurant" (in Hungarian "Nagyvendéglő", today Anna Grand Hotel)

Sculpted by Zsigmond Kisfaludi Stróbl, 1957

There is a statue of a bathing female figure in front of the former Grand Restaurant (today Anna Grand Hotel) building, on the site of the Anna Balls of Balatonfüred. The title of the statue is quite surprising: "The lizard". The penny drops slowly when we want to understand why this beautiful white marble artwork got this name from the creator, the Hungarian sculptor Zsigmond Kisfaludi Strobl. Near the naked lady on the rock there is a small lizard that is basking in the sun, the woman probably got frightened of this and that's why she lifts up one of her legs.

But not only the choice of name was tricky. As Jenő Kisfaludy Stróbl, the nephew of the sculptor told in 1975, in fact the statue was already almost ready when it was ordered in 1957. At that time the former Grand Restaurant ("Nagyvendéglő") was the restaurant of the sanatorium of the National Council of Trade Unions (in Hungarian "SZOT Szanatórium", this is the present-day Heart Hospital or "Szívkórház"), that was just undergoing renovation. The artist was asked to create an arbitrary sculpture for in front of the restaurant, any sculpture that goes well with the location. Zsigmond Kisfaludi Strobl undertook the task, and to make it easy he selected this almost ready statue from his studio, that was there since 1921, and just slightly modified it according to the requests (he polished it and added a circular pool to it). On a recently revealed old photo the semi-finished work of art is clearly visible in the studio of the sculptor.

An evening music event an the stage in front of the Kisfaludy Gallery (Municipal Community/Cultural Centre)

The building of the Kisfaludy Gallery in Balatonfüred is already almost 200 years old. It was opened in 1830 as the Arany Szarvas Restaurant (literally "Golden Deer Restaurant"), but later it was renamed to Kisfaludy Restaurant in honour of the Hungarian poet Sándor Kisfaludy. In 1914 there was a plan to transform the restaurant into a movie theater or cinema, but that happened only in 1922, when the Kisfaludy Film Theatre (in Hungarian firstly "Kisfaludy Mozgó" then "Kisfaludy Filmszínház") was opened. That was operating until 2004. Since 2006 there is a fine art gallery and the Town Community Center ("Városi Művelődési Központ") within the walls of the former cinema building.