Juhász Gyula - Szántó András: Hotels - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1999)

to autumn, where the young of the city could meet and dance to quality light music.

The New Year’s Party at the end of 1966 was an event when the people of Budapest bid farewell to the Hotel Danube as well as the old year. The establishment was closed down and then demolished.

The Hotel RITZ (No. 14 Mária Valéria utca, district IV) No. 12-14 Apáczai Csere János utca, district V (on the site of the Hotel Inter-Continental)

Built in neo-Baroque style to plans by Sándor Fellner, the six-storey Hotel Ritz was opened in 1913 as a member of a hotel chain already famous at the time. With its sumptuous and well chosen furniture, the Pest Ritz was a

The lobby of the Hotel Ritz

remarkably luxurious establishment even in comparison with its sister hotels in the chain abroad.

Ruined during World War I, the business was acquired in 1916 by the Grand Hotel Hungária Share Company, which continued to operate the establishment under the name Dunapalota (Danube Palace). (During the 1919 Hungarian Republic of Soviets the Hungária building served as the premises of the “Soviet House”, accommodating the commissars of the commune who could thus be convened at a moment’s notice in an emergency.)

In the course of its reconstruction in 1937, some parts of the neighbouring building were annexed to the former Ritz, and it was here that guests of the Grand Hotel Hungária arriving from the Orient were given residence.

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