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

The Danube row in the early 1800s

was demolished in 1938.) One of the finest architectural features of the promenade was the Lloyd Palace, built to plans by József Hild in 1830 on the southern side of what is today Roosevelt tér. The fagade of this building was decorated with a tympanum and a sumptuous colonnade. Its name marks the fact that the building was acquired by the Pest Lloyd Company in 1851.

In the middle of the row of mansions the Redoute, designed by Mihály Pollack, was erected between 1829 and 1832. It was a building ranking among the finest. Its ground-floor rooms housed an elegant café opened in 1832. The beautiful neo-Classical building was not only the home of the billiard-playing café patrons, but also served as a venue of significant social and cultural events such as balls and concerts. Johann Strauss the elder played here as early as 1833 and the celebrated virtuoso violinist of the period Henri Vieuxtemps also gave several concerts. The pride of Hungary’s musical life, Ferenc Liszt himself often returned from his extended stay abroad to play to the rapturous audiences of the Redout.

Later the Redoute became the site of momentous events in the country’s history when Parliament was convened in its banqueting hall in the summer of 1848.

The Danube row on the Buda side already bustled with life in the early 19th century. Although there were no paved embankments at the time (in fact paved streets were not much in evidence either), smartly dressed ladies and gen6