Studio Openig Onto the Sky

Close to the centre of Sfântu Gheorghe, at the beginning of Ciucului Street, a house with spectacular features attracts attention. This beautiful "example" of the Hungarian version of Art Nouveau, associated with Ödön Lechner, was the family home of the photographer of villages Dr. Ferenc Gyulai, who built his house with a glass-roofed studio in 1910. The corbelled parapet under the roof, the gable wall and the floral motifs between the Prussian blue window frames are reminiscent of Hungarian folk art. Gyulai, however, did not live in his dream house for long, because he moved to Budapest after the First World War in 1918. He sold the property to local photographer Lajos Incze, who used it for decades. After the building was nationalised in 1950, Lajos Incze was allowed to use the studio with its natural light until 1957, when he was forced to join the "Diligence Small Industrial Cooperative" with his equipment. Only the two rooms on the upper floor of the nationalised property were left to the family, the others were occupied by foreigners, and the workshop was also converted into a flat. Ferenc Gyulai is still commemorated on the façade of the Gyulai Studio, and since 2002, his memory has been preserved by a photo club in the capital of Covasna County.

Samu Csinta