Egykori lóvasút indóház - Egykori lóvasút indóház

The Újpest horse railway - Hungary's first horse railway - started operating on July 30, 1866 and ceased in 1900, when it was finally replaced by the tram. The growing population of Újpest village, established under the leadership of Count István Károlyi, required modern public transport. To serve this, the son of István Károlyi, Sándor Károlyi, established the Pest Road Iron Society in 1865, which applied for and received a permit to build a horse-drawn railway. Its two terminals were the “Újpest Indóház” (today's Újpest city gate) and the Pest Széna tér (today's Kálvin tér). The free-standing, villa-like, single-storey, irregularly designed, highly divided, romantic-style building, also referred to as the Hunter's Castle or the Lion's House, was built in 1866-67 according to the plans of János Wagner (the contractor of rooms as well as a restaurant and a waiting room. The most ornate façade of the "booth" - although the entrance is never directly open from here - faces west. The masks on the facade are an oral tradition, but architects say they may have originally been the interior decorations of the old National Theater.