Anyone who has been in Belgium probably knows the narrow houses clamped on a very little land. We also have an extreme example here, in Hungary. Today we take a closer look at 16 Várkert wharf.

According to its original estate sheet, this was Buda’s narrowest building from the beginnings. It’s only 6.20 meters wide from one side, 5.50 from the other and its depth is just a bit more than 15 meters. The original owner, Henrik Lajos Enderes sold the land to Manó and Ármin Mandl in 1879, who built a two-fronted, three-storey house with an inner courtyard at the end of the 1890s. A letter M is still there above the second-floor balcony referring to the builders.

The 22 meters high building with neo-gothic façade is a real eye-catcher of the Danube shore. The ogee entrance and the wrought iron ornaments of the windows are true gems of the neighborhood. The building is mostly covered with decorative bricks. The attic was built in the 1930s and now the house includes 10 flats. The façade ends stepwise, in a triangular form above the 4th floor.

This beauty is now a protected building and in reality, it’s not such small because of the space limit. It was compressed to make possible that the whole house of block could fit into one picture if someone is photographing from the Pest side.