History

The twin palaces owe their existence to the Elisabeth Bridge. As Budapest prepared to throw a new crossing over the Danube at the turn of the century, the Pest approach needed a dignified frame, and Archduchess Klotild commissioned a matched pair of palaces to provide it. Korb and Giergl, among the busiest architects of turn-of-the-century Budapest, delivered two mirror-image blocks whose towers face each other across Szabad sajtó út, the street funnelling traffic from Ferenciek tere onto the bridge.

The palaces survived the twentieth century in mixed use and mixed fortunes. An exterior renovation in 1968 preceded their formal listing as protected monuments in 1977, which secured the facades and the essential fabric. The southern palace’s most recent chapter began with a restoration lasting five years, which preserved the original cobblestones of the carriage entrance, the staircases, the railings and the internal courtyard. The building reopened on 30 June 2021 as the Matild Palace, a Luxury Collection Hotel — a conversion of the original structure, not a rebuild behind a retained front.