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

with the other establishment would rub off. However, the last nine years of its operation failed to bring the hoped-for prosperity to the establishment. In 1900 the hotel was demoted to the rank of common apartment building by its new proprietor, the Trieste Insurance Company.

The Hotel ISTVÁN FŐHERCEG (Archduke Stephen)

No. 1 Akadémia utca, district V Enjoying a fine reputation from the time it opened in 1846, the hotel, which was designed by Mátyás Zitter- barth, housed government ministries in 1848. It was here that Sándor Petőfi appeared before the conscription committee to join the national defence force. The siege of 1849 caused such serious damage to the building that it had to be renovated, following which the beautified establishment became the regular haunt of visiting scholars, literati and gentlefolk from the provinces.

The hotel saw its heyday from 1889 onwards, under the management of János Gundel. Novelist Kálmán Mikszáth described the period in these words: “It became a genteel, quiet, snug nest, as ifit were everybody's home. Every nook was bright with cleanliness. The gypsy violinist did not scrape the fiddle forever, so those wishing to have an evening’s undisturbed conversation would go to the István... The only source of any noise in the István were banquets held by members of the academy or of the Kisfaludy Literary Circle... The members of serious scholarly meetings, elderly gentlemen averse to noisy revelry sipped away at the fine wines of Gundel among the gold-friezed, snow-white walls.”

János Gundel was a leading practitioner of the trade, regarded as a pioneer of the tourism industry. After having managed several restaurants and hotels, he took out a lease on the Hotel Archduke Stephen between 1889 and 1904. For thirty-five years, he chaired the Trade Association of Hoteliers and Restaurateurs, and from 1882, he was a member of the municipality of Budapest. Furthermore, he played a leading role in the reform of Hungarian cuisine.

Cinder his management, a major attraction of the hotel was the room laid out for Kálmán Mikszáth and his circle, of which the writer himself remarked the following, referring to himself in the third person: “Gundel had the cosy section consisting of three snug cubicles built for Mikszáth and his company. The walls were decorated

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