One of the most prestigious trade names of turn-of-the-century Budapest was that of the carpet and textile makers Fülöp Haas and Sons. The company’s building in Gizella Square (now Vörösmarty Square) was admired by everyone in the city. The business was built up by Fülöp Haas the Elder, who first sat at his loom at the age of sixteen, and had a factory of sixty looms when he was still a young man. The company’s reputation spread far beyond Budapest – to Vienna, Venice, Milan, Paris and London. By 1880, he and his two sons had all died. His grandson, Fülöp Haas the Younger, floated the business as a public company and renounced management of the factory. The company received many orders from the imperial court, and supplied carpets for a new royal train and the gold brocade for the wall hangings of St Stephen’s Hall in the Palace of Buda Castle. By then, the company was controlled by shareholders, a family business only in name. The world-famous brand was swept away by the Second World War.
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