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

most became a hotel, too. In 1936 a potential buyer intended to purchase the building from its new owners, the Corso Palace Co., for the purposes of turning the property into a hotel, but the deal fell through.

It was no accident that the promenade became more and more popular. Its buildings giving onto the Danube afforded a magnificent view from the Elizabeth Bridge and the Gellért Hill, to the Castle Hill with the Royal Palace and the Chain Bridge. In 1928 the municipal authorities ordered, at first for an experimental period, the floodlighting of the Fishermen’s Bastion and the Saint Gellért monument, later the Citadella on Gellért Hill and the St. Anna Church on Batthyány tér. The greatest attraction for the public was the night-time floodlighting from 1937 of the Royal Palace, the Matthias Church and the Chain Bridge.

Although the inner world of the hotels stood in no stark contrast with the life of the promenade, the two were not the same. The hotel guests of the Hungária or the Duna- palota were prosperous people accustomed to luxury in their daily lives. Yet there were few who could afford to frequent the restaurants of these hotels. Those patronising the beer places or attending to five-o’clock teas represented a larger segment of the population. And anybody could spend hours sitting in the wicker armchairs on the

The floodlit Chaim Bridge, the Matthias Church and the Fishermen’s bastion from the promenade'

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