Postal Palace
Building, structure
Built in 1903 on the northern edge of Bratislava's historic city centre, it was designed by architect Gyula Pártos and built in Art Nouveau style as the headquarters of the Post and Telegraph Directorate on the site of the old post office building. The building, adapting to the significant difference in level, has one more level on the southern side than on the northern side. Its plinth was built of ashlar stones. The building has undergone minor and major changes over the past century, so for example the original, ornate gables of its facade have disappeared. Several original wrought iron grilles are also present. The central space of the modest-looking building is the so-called Reception Hall, which is an Art Nouveau masterpiece: it receives its natural lighting through an ornate, multi-coloured glass dome. Even the cashier windows are original. ; Ödön Lechner, among others, also applied with his designs, but the committee assessing the applications proved to be too strict with him. Komor Marcell writes in the Vállalkozók newspaper (January 28, 1903, p. 3): "I was particularly hurt by the exclusion of the plan of architects Ödön Lechner and Leitersdorfer, which is a counterpart to the exclusion that occurred during the first tender. There, being minutes late for the deadline, here, being centimeters out of line [they were not taken into account]. […] That plan does not lose its goodness if we push the boundary wall even one and a half meters inward, and the execution certainly allows for the leap in the present task. […] If I look at the essence and artistic qualities of the plan, I wish from the bottom of my heart that its creator will erect a Hungarian monument to Hungarian culture in a place where, at the moment, only the German spirit prevails in architecture."