A story of a family that shaped a city

Continuing on with my last thought from yesterday, the link of Antal Hamerli's video. The video that shows a day in Pécs in 1939 is very interesting, but so is the man, who took the video.

Antal Hamerli was born into one of the most prominent families in Pécs. The Hamerli family was a family of great indusrialist. They founded a glove manufacture in Pécs in the second half of the 19th century. The small manufacture soon became a factory and the gloves of Pécs became recognised throughout Europe. The family's spectrum of business soon widened and they expanded into other areas such as a store dealing with metal objects and dishes. In fact Antal Hamerli's father opened the first automobile salon in Pécs importing Chevrolet cars in the beginning of the 20th century.

Probably the greatest mark the family left on Pécs is the Hotel Palatinus. The hotel is a secessionist wonder and it stands in the city center. It is a wonderful place for events and is still one of the prime event locations of the city.

the ball room of Hotel Palatinus (hoteltelnet.hu)



the main staircase of Hotel Palatinus (budapesthotels-budapesthotelbooking.com)



Today the family doesn't play a role in the industry of the city anymore, which is probably due to the hardships that they have suffered during the socialist era of Hungary. The legacy of the family is still remarkable today there are several glove manufacturers in Pécs and they have an international reputation having worked for luxury fashion houses of Italy and France. In 2010 six of these manufacturers held together to create a brand and a store under the name Pécsi Kesztyű (kesztyű meaning gloves in Hungarian) with the goal to reestablish the prominence of the Hamerli era of this industry.  

the new Pécsi Kesztyű store (walled.trychydts.hu)