bg Timisoara

Lloyd Palace

- Piața Victoriei 2 -
The construction of the residential and commercial building, which took place between 1910 and 1912, was executed according to the plans of the Jewish Hungarian architect , and the construction was supervised by the architect Arnold Merbl. On the first floor of the building, Baumhorn designed the generous space of the Lloyd café, where the paneling and furniture were made by the Lehman family of craftsmen from Timișoara. The opening ceremony of the building took place on 29 September 1912. The construction was financed by the Lloyd Society, established in 1866 by representatives of farmers and grain wholesalers from Banat. On the upper floors, there are apartments, and on the first floor, the building hosted numerous institutions and societies over time, such as the Merchandise and Agricultural Exchange of the Lloyd Society.
The building somewhere in the 1910s
Later on, it became used by the Merchants' Union, the Lloyd Society and Club, the General State Security Inspectorate, and the Police Inspectorate. During the , from September, 15 until October 18, 1915, the headquarters of the German troops was installed in the building. At that time, Marshal , the supreme commander of the German army in the Balkans, was housed on the second floor of the building, in the apartment of a rich Rózsavölgyi Jewish family. In 1945, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which inherited the palace after the liquidation of the Lloyd Society, donated it to the newly established West University. In 1948, the palace was nationalized and became the headquarters of the Rectorate of the Politehnica University of Timișoara.
The building during a later period
The symmetrical building, which was built in the style of Eclectic with some Neo-Baroque and Art Nouveau elements, was built with a mansard roof with a globe as a towering above it. In front of the roof, you can see loads of piers, as well as three top gables decorated with , garlands, and a of the Greek god , one of which is placed in a . On this same height, there are more mascaron, but also , which are either adorned with a garland or . The two , which are placed above the third and fourth floors, are embellished with in different sizes. Around the entire building, you can see various cartouches and in different shapes and sizes. The that extend from the second floor to the third floor, unlike the two that flank the main entrance, are all crowned with an Ionic . On top of this entrance, you'll be able to see a pointed , and a bit further up a segmental one adorned with another cartouche. On this same side, you can also see four statues of two Greek goddesses and two Greek gods, as well as an that states POLITEHNICA.
The interior of the building in 1914