Mistress of the rákoshegy House
Érseklél, which today no longer exists, was located 22 kilometres from Komárom. In 1879 Regina Ehrental was born there, the youngest, seventh child of a poor Jewish family. She studied in Győr and Budapest. Her early poetry was published when she was in Győr. Following her brother, she moved to Pest, where initially she aimed to be an actress, but given the success of her poetry she turned to literature instead. From 1897 her poems were published under the name of Renée Erdős. Endre Ady called her “the genius poet girl”. Her first volume of poetry, Maiden’s Dreams, appeared in 1899. Her talent was recognised by many people and Károly Eötvös took her on as literary contributor for Egyetértés, the paper he edited. Her second volume of poems was prepared for publication by Sándor Bródy in 1902. Their passionate relationship lasted for three years, but it came to an end because Renée Erdős was not prepared to marry him. While in Italy she met Lajos Fülep, whom she married in 1913. Fülep, one of the greatest 20th-century Hungarian art historians, was a suitable partner, but the marriage wasn’t fortunate. They had two daughters, but before the second was born she left her husband and then lived alone with her small daughter and new-born child. Due to thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, she was confined to bed for a long time. She wrote fiction in order to maintain herself and her family. She had five poetry volumes published between 1899 and 1921, and in the 1920s her popular novels appeared. Their resounding success had financial results and she was able to buy a villa in Rákoshegy. In 1926 in Rome, aged 47, she married her secretary, who was ten years her junior, had been employed for a long time and had also been managing the household. But this marriage was also unsuccessful and her husband left her. Fortunately, the most important place in her life has remained almost untouched to this day and thus her memory is preserved by the collection and exhibition room of the Renée Erdős House in Budapest’s 17th District. While strolling among the family houses of the district, the building appears as an unexpected, surprising sight, as if you were entering another world. The villa was built in 1895. The romanticizing, Eclectic edifice is still surrounded by a well-tended garden, as it was during the writer’s lifetime. The collection was established in 1990, as was the exhibition space, thus the character of the memorial house has remained. The ground-floor rooms house a permanent local history exhibition, next to which is a room furnished like a traditional folk house and a small display of items from the collection of Rezső Epress, a local collector. The Renée Erdős memorial room was set up at the start and there is a diorama exhibition about the nature protection area located on the edge of the district. Since 1990 these have been updated several times.