bg Osijek

Kästenbaum-Korsky House

- Europska Avenija 16 -
The construction of the two-story building, which was executed according to the project of the Hungarian architect , was completed in 1904. The building was built for the lawyer Alfred Kästenbaum, who was born in Osijek, in 1873, in a family of landowners, who moved to Osijek in the 1860s from Hungary. He started his studies in where he graduated in law, and after that, he became a lawyer at the Jewish Commercial Bank, and in 1912 he became the lawyer of the Osijek Sugar Factory.
An old postcard that shows the building on the right
He changed his surname from Kästenbaum to Korsky and converted to the Roman Catholic faith. His political affiliation was strongly pro-Croatian and was a member of the political party called Čista Stranka Prava. He was married to Marija Schleien, with whom he had two children, a son named Ivo born in 1918, who graduated from law school in , and a daughter named Vera. As a fan of fine art, he bought paintings, mainly from Croatian artists, and he also collected expensive Persian carpets. Doctor Alfred Korsky died in Osijek on March 21, 1945, at the age of 72. His wife Marija Korsky, as well as most of the richest citizens of Osijek, was taken to a concentration camp at the end of 1945. After some time she was released through an acquaintance, but without civil rights. Having established contact with the children, she crossed illegally to Italy and together with them went to live in Argentina.
Ivo Korsky
The roof of the symmetrical building, which is built in the Art Nouveau style, contains several eyelid dormers and two . The parts that are located underneath the roof overhang and the roof , as well as the parts that flank the windows, are lavishly decorated with all sorts of floral ornamentation. The loggia that's supported by two pillars, which are crowned with an Ionic , is topped with a balcony that's secured with an alluring wrought iron railing.
The Osijek Sugar Factory