Buda Castlemaine

About

Buda is a heritage-listed historic house and garden located in Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia. It was added to the Victorian Heritage Database on 15 October 1970, when it was purchased by the Trustees of the Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historic Museum (CAGHM) which oversees its management. Since 1981 the house (museum) and garden are open to the public Monday to Sunday 12pm to 4pm, except Good Friday and Christmas Day.

Built by a retired Baptist Missionary, Reverend James Smith, in 1861 and originally named Delhi Villa, the original plan was a six-roomed brick house with an encircling verandah, based on the Indian Bungalow he considered the most suitable style of housing for the Australian climate. However, within two years, Smith decided to return with his family to his missionary work in India and the house was put up for auction.

The property was purchased in 1863 by businessman and jeweller Ernest Leviny to serve as the marital home for Leviny and his second wife, Bertha Hudson, whom he married the following year. They raised their family of ten children in the house. Leviny oversaw many changes and alterations to the house and grounds, particularly between the years 1890 – 1900. It was around this time that the house was renamed Buda after the capital of Hungary, Budapest.

Built by a retired Baptist Missionary, Reverend James Smith, in 1861 and originally named Delhi Villa, the original plan was a six-roomed brick house with an encircling verandah, based on the Indian Bungalow he considered the most suitable style of housing for the Australian climate. However, within two years, Smith decided to return with his family to his missionary work in India and the house was put up for auction.

The property was purchased in 1863 by businessman and jeweller Ernest Leviny to serve as the marital home for Leviny and his second wife, Bertha Hudson, whom he married the following year. They raised their family of ten children in the house. Leviny oversaw many changes and alterations to the house and grounds, particularly between the years 1890 – 1900. It was around this time that the house was renamed Buda after the capital of Hungary, Budapest.

The home is elevated above the town with extensive views to the south and south-west, and occupies a site of 1.2 hectares in original established gardens. Botanist Baron Ferdinand von Mueller was a guest of the house while designing Castlemaine Botanical Gardens, and is considered to have influenced the garden design, and to have presented to the family some of its now largest trees. Among the most significant large nineteenth century, early twentieth century gardens surviving in Victoria, it is significant for the compartmentalised nature of the layout, relative intactness, and for the survival of two notable garden buildings, the aviary and the former tennis pavilion.

In 1984, after 3 years of being open to the public, the grounds and plantings were restored with funding from the Victorian government Gardens and Environment Committee to mark the state's 150th anniversary. The work was further financed, undertaken and continued by a Friends of Buda association founded by local historian Peter Cuffley who after making a survey, recruited the services of Castlmaine horticulturalists Clive and Margaret Winmill. The house and garden were beneficiaries of further state funding announced in May 1985, and gardeners were employed in the mid-1980s under the Commonwealth Employment Program.

In 2011 a large cypress hedge, a major feature of the garden facing the facade, proved moribund and was removed using a grant from the Australian Garden History Society, thus restoring the original vista enjoyed from the house. It was replaced with twelve new trees.

The house is full of Ernest's and the daughters' artworks and artefacts including jewellery and enamelwork, embellished fabrics, woodwork and photography; one of the daughters even decorated the cornice in one of the bedrooms.

Ernest Leviny was born at Szepesszombat ( Spišská Sobota, Georgenberg) Hungary, in 1818 and trained as a silversmith and jeweller in Budapest. Arriving at Port Phillip, Melbourne, early in 1853, he went directly to the rich alluvial goldfields of Forest Creek, and the bustling new township of Castlemaine. There, he established a successful watchmaking and jewellery business in the Market Square. By 1863, he was able to retire from business and purchase Delhi Villa. In 1864, he married Bertha Hudson, bringing her to Castlemaine to settle at Delhi Villa. Leviny was a clock maker, goldsmith and silversmith.

Ernest and Bertha had ten children between 1865 and 1883: four sons: Louis, Alfred, Ernest and Francis, and six daughters: Mary, Ilma, Beatrice (Kate), Gertrude, Bertha ( Dorothy ) and Hilda. Of their four sons, two died under the age of five years. The Leviny daughters were encouraged to pursue their artistic interests at a time when women were being given more opportunities to study art and take up careers. They worked across a range of media including painting, woodcarving, metalwork, photography, and needlework in which they had their mother's example in the production of clothing by hand.

- Mary, the eldest, had much to do in helping to run the household, and was a major contributor to making everyone's clothes, embroidering, smocking and decorating.

- Hilda specialised in embroidery. Three of her works were shown in the First Australian Exhibition of Women's Work 1907, including a three-panelled draught screen with hand embroidered and appliquéd panels which is on display at Buda.

- Dorothy won awards for her fine art and photography and specialised in metal and enamel work

was born at Szepesszombat ( Spišská Sobota, Georgenberg) Hungary, in 1818 and trained as a silversmith and jeweller in Budapest. Arriving at Port Phillip, Melbourne, early in 1853, he went directly to the rich alluvial goldfields of Forest Creek, and the bustling new township of Castlemaine. There, he established a successful watchmaking and jewellery business in the Market Square. By 1863, he was able to retire from business and purchase Delhi Villa. In 1864, he married Bertha Hudson, bringing her to Castlemaine to settle at Delhi Villa. Leviny was a clock maker, goldsmith and silversmith.

Ernest and Bertha had ten children between 1865 and 1883: four sons: Louis, Alfred, Ernest and Francis, and six daughters: Mary, Ilma, Beatrice (Kate), Gertrude, Bertha ( Dorothy ) and Hilda. Of their four sons, two died under the age of five years. The Leviny daughters were encouraged to pursue their artistic interests at a time when women were being given more opportunities to study art and take up careers. They worked across a range of media including painting, woodcarving, metalwork, photography, and needlework in which they had their mother's example in the production of clothing by hand.

- Mary, the eldest, had much to do in helping to run the household, and was a major contributor to making everyone's clothes, embroidering, smocking and decorating.

- Hilda specialised in embroidery. Three of her works were shown in the First Australian Exhibition of Women's Work 1907, including a three-panelled draught screen with hand embroidered and appliquéd panels which is on display at Buda.

- Dorothy won awards for her fine art and photography and specialised in metal and enamel work

From 1905, after Ernest's death, a British Arts and Crafts style was embraced by his daughters and practiced in their furnishing and decoration of the house interior; its fittings and colour schemes, handcrafted items, metalwork light fittings and embroidered soft furnishings, mostly made by the Leviny women.