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

Red Army soldier in a window of the Soviet House on 24 June 1919

As units in the hotel row they became organic parts of Pest’s panorama, creating an architectural assemblage that could deservedly become the pride of Budapest, elevated to the seat of capital city and royal seat in 1892, with a population of almost a million by 1913.

During World War 1 the hotels experienced a drastic decline in custom, so much so that the Ritz found itself in deep financial trouble. The hotel, navigating in dire straits, was taken over by the Grand Hotel Hungária Share Company in 1916. From that time on the establishment continued under the name Dunapalota (Danube Palace), even though the general public continued to call it the Ritz until and even after 1945.

In 1916 the lease held by the DGT steam-boat company expired and so did the concession rights of its competitor CSAV the following year, whereupon the operation of the ferry service across the Danube was taken over by the Hungarian Royal River and Sea Navigation Company (MFTR). On a side wall of the wharf building erected by MFTR, an installation existing to this day, lines carved into marble mark the levels reached by the water in the great floods of the river. According to the plaque, the highest level of 867 centimetres was measured in 1876.

In 1919 the Hungária was requisitioned for the com24