TRADITIONAL AND RENEWAL

One of the jewels of the Budapest Grand Boulevard, the former Grand Hotel Royal, has reopened as the Corinthia Grand Hotel Royal, following major renovation and reconstruction. This went way beyond the original plans and has restored it to its former glory. This magnificent five star hotel, which awaits sophisticated guests with its modern quality services and facilities, has again taken its place as one of the pillars of Hungary's quality tourism industry-just as it did when it was inaugurated in 1896. Sadly, it was closed in 1991 by its then owner, HungarHotels. A symbol of Budapest's phenomenal development at the turn of the last century, it was purchased by the predecessor to the State Property Agency, to be sold later. The tender for its purchase in 1997 was won by a consortium registered in Malta, called Corinthia, which commissioned the major renovation work.

Work on this palatial edifice in Erzsébet Boulevard began in 1894, based on designs by the Hungarian architect of Swiss origin, Rezsô Lajos Ray (1845-1899.) He settled in Pest-Buda (as it was then known) in 1868, and besides many Budapest tenement constructions, his name is associated with such public buildings as the Lukács Spa Hotel, the Religion and Public Education Ministry building, the German Reform church in Hold utca (recently restored to its original function) and the legendary Hunting Horn Hotel. Ray also planned the building at Andrássy út 29, the bottom of which houses the famous Muvész or Artist's Coffee House. Other work by Ray included designing elegant holiday homes in Siófok which quickly became hugely fashionable. 

When the Royal opened its door, it was regarded as an especially modern and luxurious hotel. Its thirty one thousand square meters of usable floor space easily earned it the title of Grand Hotel. Shortly before it opened in 1896, the newspaper Magyar Estihírlap wrote: "One of the largest and most imposing buildings of the capital is that immense hotel which after a year and a half of modest work, had now been completed. Its facade is not gaudy, the enormous edifice has been created with noble simplicity and is a true spectacle for the denizens of our capital. The Grand Hotel Royal will open shortly on April 30th and is virtually without parallel on the entire European continent, so much so that there is not a single hotel in Paris or London that exceeds it. The hotel is 5 stories high and has 250 guest rooms. On the ground floor, besides the offices and grand foyer, at the Boulevard end, there are Budapest and Viennese telephone boxes, an English saloon and barbers; a veranda style terrace opens from the spacious beautiful coffee house, as it does from the restaurant, with a glass roof to protect against rain (...) There is a service staff of 180, and this does not include the various cooks, guides and interpreters.
A consignment each of Mediterranean flowers from Canne and Nice fill the coffee house, restaurant and conservatory. From the ceiling of the coffee house hang no fewer than 300 electric lights; and all the furniture is made from mahogany. (...) The first floor ball room is very beautiful, the gold leaf and frescos of which cost fifty thousand forints alone. The frescos depict carnival scenes, and are the work of Zsigmond Vajda. A separate approach leads to the ballroom, which is a work of art in itself. On the first floor, the so-called Prince's quarter can be found, with truly princely furnishings. With five chambre separées, it was fashioned in Hungarian, Turkish, English, French and German style (...) An interesting novelty of the Grand Hotel Royal, which was designed by Rezső Ray, is that there are furnished suites for entire families, which comprise of a hall, salon, bedroom and dining room."

The hotel's ballroom, which was a venue for concerts as well, was converted into a thousand seat cinema in 1915: indeed, this is where the first talking Hungarian picture: Blue Idol, was screened. The cinema was named Royal Apollo, altered to Red Star in the 1950s, but following the change of system, reverted to the name Apollo, before finally closing in 1997 (interestingly, from the very time of its opening in 1896, the coffee house showed silent films brought from Paris.) Following its recent renovation, this imposing hall, with its rich gilt white walls, ornamented with fresco portraits, has regained not only its former splendour, but its original function as well.

The hotel building was originally designed as a dual cour d'honneur, in other words, besides the cinema and the conservatory, both had a U shaped covered recess and passage, thus dividing the building into three. However these were lost following restorations in the mid-fifties. At that time, briefly, even government officers were housed here. Closed in 1991, the building had already fallen into such disrepair by the eighties, that only the Boulevard facade and cinema ballroom were in a state to be renovated. The other sections needed to be demolished and rebuilt. According to plans by leading designer of the reconstruction, Miklós Marosi (KÖZTI Rt.), the cour d'honneur concept was restored and the building gained a basic territory of forty five thousand square meters. The alcove areas now received a glass roof and were closed off. Besides the restored ballroom, the pool to be found in the neighbouring five story building will be another thing of note: the pool with its glass roof designed by Miksa Róth, will be restored to its original state, based on the original plans. On the Hársfa street side, parallel to the Boulevard, opposite the hotel is a new four story building, which on the cellar and basement level, is car park, while higher up are conference and exhibition halls, as well as apartments.

The rebuilt hotel now awaits its guests with 414 luxury standard rooms, 31 suites and the so called Executive Floor, with two restaurants, bar and bistro. A significant proportion of the first floor is occupied by the conference centre, which is equipped with the most modern computer and presentation technologies, in the centre of which, the wonderfully restored Grand Ball Room takes pride of place. The reception rooms of the Valletta Conference and Exhibition Centre, which occupy 2600 square meters, can be flexibly transformed and can receive 2200 guests. The restored Hotel Royal-while preserving the magic of the original architectural creation and continuing the tradition-replicates the circumstances today which were present one hundred and seven years ago at its opening, at a time when Budapest was beginning to flex it muscles as a city on the European and world stage.