Lechner Ödön (1845–1914)

Ödön Lechner (August 27, 1845 – June 10, 1914) is regarded as the founder of a distinctly Hungarian architectural style, blending Art Nouveau with motifs drawn from Hungarian folk art and Eastern (Indian, Persian, and Ottoman) decorative traditions — an answer to the historicism that dominated much of 19th-century European architecture.

His masterpiece is the Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest (completed 1896), instantly recognizable for its green-and-gold Zsolnay ceramic roof tiles and richly ornamented, almost exotic facade. He applied the same distinctive vocabulary to other major Budapest buildings, including the former Postal Savings Bank (Postatakarékpénztár) building. Lechner’s influence on later generations of Hungarian architects — including the "Fiatalok" movement that shaped Kós Károly — was profound, even as his ornamental style eventually gave way to more austere modernist approaches in the 20th century.

Sources: Wikipedia; Hungarian Review.