The foundation stone of the reconstructed Százéves Cukrászda and the Ladics House was laid in Gyula on Thursday. The two iconic buildings in Békés County will be renovated at a net cost of HUF 784 million.

Csaba Latorcai, the Parliamentary State Secretary responsible for territorial development of the Prime Minister's Office, said at the event that in order for the countryside to be attractive, there is a need for locally available, desirable jobs that provide a competitive livelihood, infrastructure and services that provide a high quality and high standard of living.

In the next European Union cycle, more funds than ever will be allocated to developments based on local needs

he underlined.

He explained that it is an old challenge in regional development that it is necessary to simultaneously help catch up in needy areas and achieve international competitiveness elsewhere. The goal is for Hungary to be one of the five most livable member states of the European Union by 2030.

Quoting from the Basic Law, the State Secretary emphasized: the government, local governments and all communities willing to do so must work to "preserve what is Hungarian". The two investments in Gyula are an example of this, he opined.

Csaba Latorcai recalled his roots in the county of Békés and said that in his childhood he often came to the Százéves Cukrászda, which he never misses visiting even now when he is in the city with his family. Speaking of the Ladics house, he said that there are not many such authentic exhibition places in the whole country, because it is the only noble, bourgeois home in which the entire original legacy can be viewed.

Mayor Ernő Görgényi (Fidesz-KDNP) said that the municipality won one billion forints from the framework of the EU Territorial and Urban Development Operative Program, from which the conservation and tourism development of the Centennial Confectionery and the Ladics House will be realized. The cycle path on Nagyváradi út was also built from this source.

Since the fall of 2019, the city has implemented HUF 10 billion in development with EU and Hungarian support, these two investments are the last of the sources of the 2013-2020 EU financial cycle, he said.

He noted that both buildings are "the epitome of Gyula" and have great tourist appeal; the pastry shop is the third most visited attraction in the settlement after the castle and the castle. After the renovation, the buildings "can continue to advertise the greatness of Hungarian civic culture"

he said.

Parliamentarian József Kovács (Fidesz) recalled the history of the two buildings. He said that the Centennial Confectionery is a very old and valuable two-story townhouse in the Southern Great Plain; after the great fire of 1801, it was built between 1801 and 1803, its designer and builder was It was Antal Czigler. On the ground floor, there was a shop selling oriental delicacies and sweets as early as 1803, and today it is known as the country's second oldest and continuously operating confectionary with its original equipment.

The Ladics house was built at the beginning of the 19th century as a ground-floor citizen's house, a clerk's apartment. Its first resident, Lajos Szakál, hosted Sándor Petőfi in the house. He was followed by the Ladics descendants.

Both buildings became the property of the city in the 1950s.

During the investment, the basement in the confectionary will be renovated and insulated, the roof structure will be repaired and insulated, the machinery will be renewed, the consumer area will be expanded, the original floor plan layout will be renovated and restored in the upstairs part that is currently unused, and a new water block will be built.

A passage connecting the Ladics House and the Százéves Cukrászda will also be completed.

In the Ladics house, they will also carry out the preservation of the building, the construction of water blocks and the modernization and interactive of the ticket office, as well as the exhibition, which will be expanded with previously unseen rooms, a kitchen, bathroom and pantry, as well as the creation of a museum pedagogy room that can host smaller events . With the reconstruction, the house, which until now could only be visited in cold weather after registering by phone, will be open to visitors continuously even in the winter.

The renovation must also be financially closed by December 31.

MTI

Front page image: The rebuilt Centennial Confectionery in Gyula on the day of the foundation stone of the building and Ladics House, August 10, 2023.
The two iconic buildings in Békés County will be renovated at a net cost of HUF 784 million. MTI/Péter Lehoczky