This building, which was originally built as the Savings and People’s Bank and is known among the citizens of Subotica as the Yellow House, was designed by Titusz Macskovits (Subotica, 1851 – Subotica, 1919) in eclectic style with some elements of the Italian Renaissance. The construction of the building lasted from 1880 until 1883. A special stamp is gives to the main facade with the figural decoration in the form of free-standing sculptures above the central windows, as well as in the form of decorative heads on the Corinthian capitals. At the level of the first floor there are plastic figures in pairs – Justice and Andromeda, Mercury, muses of poetry and sculpture, Zeus and Demeter – holding their attributes in their hands. The window above the main entrance is decorated with two female figures, one of which holds a distaff and the other a counter, while between them there is a beehive, the symbol of hard work and savings. In the stairway of the building there are ornamental neo-renaissance stained-glass windows, made in 1880/81 by Ede Kratzmann (Prague, 1847 – Vienna, 1922). These are the oldest examples of this kind of art in the town. From 1941 to 1945, this building was the seat of the special police, prison and torture chamber. Since then it has changed its purpose, so that in 2005 it became the building of the Teachers’ Training Faculty in Hungarian. The building is a protected cultural monument of great importance.
(Olga K. Ninkov)
Bibliography:
Korhecz Papp Zsuzsanna (2009): Szabadka első vitrázsainak restaurálása. Ex Pannonia 12/13., Történelmi Levéltár Szabadka, 43–45.
Korhecz Papp Zsuzsanna (2010): Vitrázsok a Vajdaságban – Vitraži u Vojvodini – Glasgemälde in der Vojvodina. Gradski muzej Subotica – Városi Múzeum, Szabadka, 66.
Rakočević–Cvijanov Maja – Džamić Neda (2011): Fasadni reljefi i skulpture u zaštićenom jezgru Subotice. Međuopštinski zavod za zaštitu spomenika kulture–Községközi Műemlékvédelmi Intézet, Subotica.