The Gresham Palace of Budapest is, at present, home to one of the highly rated hotels in the capital of Hungary, namely, Four Seasons Hotel. The hotel has been operating here since 2004, and its fortunate location and headquarters count as two of its chief tourist trumps.
Indeed, the Gresham Palace was a trade-related building from the very beginning, being designed as headquarters for a British Insurance Company, the name of which it bears even today. However, the team of architects and artists commissioned to design and embellish the structure spared no effort to give one of the most beautiful Art-Nouveau buildings in Budapest.
The construction works completed in 1906, and the artists who contributed to setting up the place were some of the most prominent names in the field at the time. Thus, Zsigmond Quittner was the chief architect, whereas Miklos Ligeti, Ede Telcs and Geza Maroti were in charge with the sculptural works. The beautiful ironwork is owed to Gyula Jungfer, whereas Miksa Roth’s contribution is represented by the impeccable stained glass and mosaic works.
At a certain moment it became obvious that a heritage of this kind could not be abandoned, which is precisely why the Hungarian authorities in the field decided that turning the palace into a hotel is an efficient strategy, provided that the company in charge with managing the hotel undertook the task to renovate the building while simultaneously observing the Art-Nouveau guidelines and elements for which the palace has always been held in great respect in Budapest.