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

missars of the Hungarian Soviet Republic and, accordingly, the luxury hotel was renamed the Soviet House. The new regime leaned on the dissatisfaction of the impoverished masses who had had enough of the world war, but eventually failed to enlist the support of the majority of the country’s population. After a number of provincial towns, Budapest also rose to oust from power the dictatorship of the proletariat. The building of the military academy, the Ludoviceum, and the embankment of the Danube were both sites of serious engagement between the opposing forces in the capital. The rebellious gunboats on the river shot at the Soviet House, while the red army troops and the red guardists returned fire from the windows of the Hungária, the promenade and the lower embankment. However, the skirmish did not last long. The insurrection collapsed overnight and its leaders escaped to Serbia. At this time the buildings in the hotel row sustained no serious damage.

After the fall of the Soviet Republic, the early twenties saw the beginning of a gradual process of stabilisation under the Bethlen government. By that time the various irregulars had left the hotels they had kept occupied, and within a few years the foreign military missions also returned to their own countries. The hotels were eventually reoccupied by their customary civilian guests. Immediately after the departure of the commissars the Grand Hotel Hungária naturally resumed its original name. The promenade itself also came back to life and visitors were once again greeted with the familiar view of people enjoying a leisurely stroll on the Danube embankment.

In 1926, the Hotel Carlton opened in the building partitioned off the Hotel Bristol, the former Heinrich House, which was later reconstructed to plans by Lajos Wagner as a five-storey edifice. It was a fine, elegant hotel, whose custom was provided by the wealthier segments of Hungary’s middle classes as well as foreign visitors. Among the palm trees in the open-air section of its restaurant overlooking Petőfi tér, the tables were set with snow-white damask tablecloths and the guests were waited on with ceremonial formality. Yet the restaurant prices were affordable even for the lower middle classes. A junior bank clerk could afford a fixed midday meal once or twice a week in the Carlton's open-air restaurant, and with no unseemly extravagance either.

From 1916, the Hungária and the Dunapalota (the for25