Once deserted and decaying century-old building of Kelenföld Power Plant is now an Art Deco Temple in Budapest. Thanks to historian Balázs Maczó, the power plant that remained hidden in Budapest’s XI District, on the banks of Danube, is now visited by tourists and locals to relish its architectural brilliance.Kelenföld Station that powered a good part of Budapest for over a century (after opening in 1914) marked a definite pause in 2007. The power plant was once a marvel of industrial design. The plant featured a control room with stained-glass windows in Art Deco-style, which was designed by Hungarian architects Kalman Reichl and Virgil Borbiró in 1927.The control room, the main attraction of the resurrected site now, is filled with buttons, handles and dials all around, which is an aide-mémoire of what this place once was. According to LeMonde, Kelenföld Power Plant no longer provides electricity to the city, but it is now a favored location for filmmakers and musicians.Films like the World War Z and American channels NBC’s Dracula Series were shot here. Guided tours are run here once a month, which is probably the only way for visitors to get to the incredible site. To access the Art Deco Temple (the magnificent control room of the power plant) tourist have to cross a labyrinth of pipes in the engine room before negotiating a flight of panoramic stairs up to the Art Deco-styled room.
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