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

The history of hostelries and hotels in this region is likely to have begun in much the same way as it did anywhere else in the world. The wayfarer was always taken in for the night to be provided with food and drink and, from time to time, to be robbed. The remains of a hostelry were uncovered in an excavation among the ruins of Aquincum, in front of what was once the south gate. The hostelry provided overnight accommodation in its small sleeping cubicles to those who could not get inside the city walls before sundown, and while patrons enjoyed their meal before turning in, their animals were attended to. Medieval monasteries would always put up the needy wayfarer and the traveller could also take a rest at coach stations.

As many as seven inns are known to have operated following the country’s Turkish occupation-the Fehér Hajó (White Boat, with its six bedrooms the largest of its kind according to a 1696 register), the Arany Horgony (Golden Anchor), the Arany Sas (Golden Eagle, a name shared by a number of similar institutions, for example one built in 1780 by the Hatvan Gate to tap the traffic flowing by for its custom, and later patronised by poets and writers Petőfi, Jókai and even Vörösmarty), the Fekete Sas (Black Eagle), the Fehér Rózsa (White Rose), the Fehér Ló (White Horse) and the Fehér Ökör (White Ox).

It is also known that the first hostelry inside the walls of Buda Castle was the Vörös Sün (Red Hedgehog, No. 3 Hess András tér). The second, the Fortuna (No. 4 Fortuna utca), opened in 1784 when the Buda city council purchased a building which had been raised on the remains of three medieval houses, and had it reconstructed to accommodate wealthy patrons. The place functioned as an inn until 1868. Somewhat less than a hundred years later the Museum of Hungarian Commerce and Catering was opened on the premises.

The Arany Sas (Golden Eagle) operated in the Víziváros (Water Town) district of Buda around 1700. Also in this vicinity could be found the Arany Hajó (Golden Boat) inn, which opened in the 1710s (the same, or almost the same, plot had been occupied by a caravanserai in Turkish times). The Fehér Kereszt (White Cross), an establishment where Emperor Joseph II stayed in 1783 and 1784, opened around 1730 in what is today Batthyány tér.

Early hotels were not merely catering and accommodation facilities, but were often used as museums, the3