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

mental courtyard featuring rare plants, a fountain and a glass ceiling supported by twenty-four griffins.

This modern hotel attracted extraordinary guests. It was here that the younger brother of the Japanese emperor or the widow of Caesar Ritz took up residence (Ritz was the father of the hotel chain, that most modern concept of 20th century catering) as did Richard Wagner, Ferenc Liszt, Count Albert Apponyi, Puccini, Richard Strauss, the famous Russian dancer Nizhinsky, and the quests of honour even included Theodore Roosevelt.

The hotel’s conservatory

The virtuoso gypsy musicians of the age who played in the restaurant in the 1910s were legendary entertainers such as Berkes, Radies and, from 1920 onwards, Imre Magyari.

The purchase, in 1911, of the building standing across from the Hungária meant a further increase in the number of auxiliary rooms and, in another five years, the management of the neighbouring Hotel Ritz was also taken over by the Grand Hotel Hungária Share Company.

In 1945, during the siege of Budapest, the hotel was hit by a bomb. Burning for three continuous days, the building was completely destroyed.

The Hotel BRISTOL (later DÜNA)

(No. 4 Mária Valéria utca, district IV)

No. 2 Apáczai Csere János utca, district V (on the site of today’s Hotel Marriott) Converted from a number of apartment houses, the hotel opened in 1896, the year of the millenary celebra9