Porhászka László: The Danube Promenade - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1998)

the Hotel Duna Inter-Continental, rather than the neighbouring building, the Thonet Court. In order to create a homogeneous hotel row on the promenade, the idea of demolishing the latter was raised. However, the idea, possibly because of the foreseeable magnitude of compensation sums, was abandoned, so the old building was given a face lift instead. To make allowances for this new situation, József Finta lowered part of the external fagade ornamentation of the Forum to the level of the Thonet Court.

The hotel, which features a two-level underground garage as well as 408 rooms, can boast several precious works of art. The wall of the first floor, which is the most emphatic and most successful part of the interior design, is decorated with a hand-made tapestry created by artist Magda Pászthy Eleőd. The Vienna Café, which soon became a popular unit of the hotel and was given several tokens of international recognition, greets the guest entering it with a relief. Carved of wood by Pál Kő and Gizella Péterfi in 1981, the work evokes the atmosphere of the late 19th century. The café, although with no direct link to the promenade, has been one of the best liked places in the hotel since its opening, frequented by Hungarian as well as foreign guests.

In 1981, construction of the Forum’s underground garage necessitated removal of the statue of József Eötvös, but within a few months the monument was returned to its original place completely renovated. “A small piazza with a classical pattern in a rectangular frame was formed around the statue; the web-like arrangement of the paving creates a small island in the diagonal space, ” is how its designer László Wild describes the view. Eötvös tér, in view of the well harmonised spaces of the driveway and the pavement, has been rightly characterised as “the aesthetically and architecturally finest section of the rebuilt Danube promenade."

Our survey would be incomplete without mentioning the Hotel Atrium-Hyatt, designed by Tibor Zalaváry and opened in 1982, which is not in fact part of the promenade, but, serving as an eastern boundary for Eötvös tér, its bulk does alter the perspective view of the esplanade. The beer hall on the ground floor towards the Danube of this five-star luxury hotel, as well as the first-floor night club and restaurant provide a breath-taking night view of the floodlit Széchenyi Chain Bridge, the former Royal Palace on Castle Hill rising above the river on the Buda side, the

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