The witness

The Hermann Café on the ground floor of the Casino of Kőbánya around 1910

Do you remember the post about the Casino of Kőbánya, the former center of the cultural life of my native industrial neighborhood, which would have been one hundred years old in 1999, were it not blown up – absolutely unnecessarily, only with the intention of the abolition of the past – in the great wave of socialist housing construction?

Fortunately there are people who remember it. I received this letter from Gábor Farkas a few days ago:

“Long ago, I read your post, where this photo appeared. And you wrote about the tree in the picture: “And one of the crooked trees also exists.”

This year I got to work to Kőbánya, and I decided to take a photo of the tree without its foliage. Time has come to do so. I enclose the photo if you’re interested.

If the indication of the year is good in the url, then the previous photo was taken about fifty years ago. The tree has not grown that fat during this time. I have not made deeper research, but I think it is a Celtis, that is, a hackberry tree.”

1903, it is probably already here, to the right of the Casino’s corner

1956, after the Casino was hit by a Soviet tank

1963, with the Casino in the background

2013, with the housing estate in the background