Zita Hospital

In 1898 the Hungarian Royal Honvéd Command built a garrison hospital on Gyáli Street in Budapest. In 1914, due to the increase in the number of sick and wounded, a military hospital for war casualties was built using temporary barracks, which was named after Archduke Karl’s wife, Zita. The institute of 3700 beds was abandoned gradually after the war, but it was a hospital of 1000 beds even in 1924.

Pictures with nurses and patients come up rather frequently. The huge sanitary unit produced lots of photos. Also the grey metal badge is not rare unlike the enameled one. It is the Kappenabzeichen of the “cultural society” of the hospital.

Following the war the barracks hospital became a makeshift temporary public housing district mainly for those who resettled to Hungary from annexed territories following the Treaty of Trianon. In the beginning the Zita Colony consisted of the 40 barracks of the Zita Military Hospital, of which 29 were reconstructed into 1-2 room apartments in 1924, creating 480 temporary housing units. The demolition of the colony began in the early 1940’s.