Architect

Ferenc J. Reichl (Apatin, February 23, 1869 ‒ Budapest, April 12, 1960) completed his studies of architecture in Budapest in 1891, after which he went to major European centers to study the achievements of contemporary architects of the time. He settled in Subotica in 1895, and the following year married Irma Varga, the daughter of one of the city’s senators. Until 1908, he designed a series of civic houses and public buildings in the spirit of the then prevailing eclecticism: the People’s Casino (today’s City Library building), the Gymnasium, the Austro-Hungarian Bank building in Subotica, the church in Backa Topola and others. However, he gradually introduced elements of secession in his works (Međanski Palace, houses on Vas Stajić Street, Town Hall in Apatin). The (unrealized) projects for the Saturday Synagogue and the Town Hall and at Villa Konen in Palić show marked changes and his commitment to a new style: secession.

At the age of thirty-five, he achieved his life’s work: the unique, imaginative Art Nouveau Palace of Reichl (1904), inspired by the so-called Hungarian national style. Although at the same time he had his own brick mill and worked as a construction contractor, he was burdened with unpaid investments and heavy expenditures for his palace. Just four years after moving into his home, he went bankrupt and moved with his family to Szeged. He erected four secession palaces there. Since 1912 he has lived in Budapest, under the name Bernhausen-Reichl, where he designed and painted, but no longer stood out for his works.