Borza Tibor (szerk.): A Magyar Kereskedelmi és Vendéglátóipari Múzeum évkönyve 1970 (Budapest, Magyar Kereskedelmi és Vendéglátóipari Múzeum, 1970)
Konrádyné Gálos Magda: A budavári Fortuna fogadó
MAGDA KONR ADYNÉE GÁLOS THE FORTUNA INN IN BUDAVÁR The Fortuna Inn in Budavár used to be in the present building of the Hungarian Catering Trade Museum and had been a considerable factor of tourism. The house was bought by the city council of Buda in 1784 in order to rebuild it to an inn for they expected a great turnover by transferring the chief offices to Buda. The Fortuna had 12 rooms when opened and 50 horses could be placed in its stall. Its restaurant (today the big hall of the Museum) and café have been popular from the very beginning. Documents about all major events of the inn have been left and they are not only lease-contracts, but frequently written documents of the Magistrate and the tenants concerning the extension and rebuilding of the inn, the rent, the guests' board and the wines put on the market. At the end of the 18 t h and the beginning of the 19 t h centuries the Fortuna was considered the first inn of Buda. József Gvadányi and György Gaal had written about it, and it was mentioned by foreign globe-trotters, as e.g. in the book of Toronson and Hofmannsegg too; its restaurants and table d'hotes at lunch and its wines were famous. In its café people led a cheerful life; they played billiards, dominoes and cardgames. Its overnight guests were aristocrats, officers, civil servants, diplomats travelling through the country, families attending balls in Buda, but one could find among them people of all sorts and conditions from archdukes to swindlers as one can read it in contemporary newspaper reports. During the war of independence it was the headquarters of the Austrian General Hentzi that is why the Hungarian Army directed to that place their cannon-balls that even today can be seen in the wall of the Museum court. In the middle of the 19 t h century the turnover of the Fortuna declined for it was unable to compete with the splendid new hotels of Buda. It ceased to exist in 1868 and its café survived it a few more years. Then the building served many kinds of purposes, but since August 1966 it has been used worthy of the memory of the old inn. One part of the building is the home of the Hungarian Catering Trade Museum and its old walls preserve the relics of the past of the trade. 133
