Karátsonyi Palace

The Karátsonyi Palace was a palace built between 1853 and 1856 in the 1st district of Budapest, in Krisztinaváros, on Krisztina Boulevard opposite the southwestern corner of Vérmező, on the plot bounded by Kuny Domokos Street, Mikó Street and Kosciuszkó Tádé Street. It was demolished in 1938, and in its place an office building was erected in 1951, which from 1990 to 2018 served as the headquarters of MATÁV, Magyar Telekom.

History

On the plot at 55 Krisztina Boulevard the first palace was built in 1790 by Ignác Kalmárffy (originally Krammerlauf), a police clerk who had been promoted to city judge. The ground‑floor Baroque‑style building with 27 rooms and 5 kitchens had a U‑shaped floor plan. From the neighboring botanical garden Kalmárffy later purchased 942 square perches, which he used to enlarge the park of his own palace. His heirs sold the building in 1848.

The Kalmárffy building was demolished around 1850, and the plot was acquired by Count Guido Karátsonyi (1817–1885), the head of the Karátsonyi family, a supporter of science and culture who led an active social life. Using the foundations of the demolished building, a new one‑storey Romantic‑style palace was erected between 1853 and 1856, based on the plans of József Pán. This became the Budapest residence of the count’s family.

The building

The palace was among the largest and most ornate private houses in contemporary Buda. Its interior was designed in a Neo‑Baroque style, and the complete interior furnishing was finished only in 1880. Its representative rooms, winter garden, library, 300‑seat theatre and richly decorated, representative picture gallery evoked the atmosphere of old noble castles. The count filled the picture gallery mainly with works by Baroque painters; the most valuable piece in the collection was Jacob Jordaens’ painting “The Fall of Man” (after several changes of ownership, the painting is currently (2016) owned by the Museum of Fine Arts).

The palace's wide façade faced the Vérmező and the Castle. Its Romantic style façade was articulated by risalits, arcades, and balconies. Semi‑circular carriage drives were attached to both sides of the main staircase. On the ground floor were the large theater hall, the Karátsonyi picture gallery and the dining room. On both sides of the entrance hall, ornate staircases led up to the floor, with decorative wrought‑iron balustrades, to the ballroom and to the living rooms.

Numerous balls, social and cultural events were held in the palace. In 1873 Franz Liszt gave a concert in the palace. In 1898 the carnival ball organized by Count Guidó was visited by the ruler himself, King Franz Joseph. The event was reported in the National Gazette edited by Kálmán Mikszáth: “In the high noble circles they still speak of nothing else but the fairy‑light Karátsonyi ball. It was the real highlight of this year's carnival and became a historic moment by the king honoring the entertainment of one of his loyal subjects with his presence.” Count Guido Karátsonyi was, by the way, a favourite figure of the contemporary tabloid society column, and Mikszáth often wrote articles about him. When the count died in 1885, Mikszáth also wrote an obituary for him.

Decline and demolition

Count Guido's firstborn son, Aladár Karátsonyi, married beneath his rank, and his father forced him to renounce his primogeniture rights. After the father's death, the second son, Count Jenő Karátsonyi (1861–1933), inherited the family trust, estates and the palace. By then the family fortune was already heavily mortgaged. Count Jenő had no children, so he designated his nephew, Count Imre Keglevich‑Karátsonyi (1897–1964), his sister Ilma Karátsonyi's (1867–1949) son, and Count Keglevich Gyula's son as heirs to the family wealth. However, Countess Ilma and her son could no longer master the family's growing debts. Contemporary sources state that Count Imre “wasted the fortune.” The better days of Karátsonyi Palace ended, and by the early 1930s it fell into the hands of the creditors.

The building was demolished down to its foundations in 1938. On the site the Hungarian government planned the construction of a German imperial school (Reichsschule), officially as a friendly gesture towards the German Empire – the rising leading power in Europe at that time. In the mid-1930s several large real‑estate speculation projects were also underway in Buda, so such a background motive cannot be excluded. The German school was never built.

After World War II and the communist takeover, between 1951 and 1954 the site was used to build the headquarters of the Design Offices of the Ministry of Metallurgy and Mechanical Engineering (KGMTI), in socialist realist style, partly using the foundations of the former palace. The floor plan of the massive office block occupies the entire area of the former Karátsonyi Palace building and its park. In 1968 KGMTI was reorganized into a self‑accounting economic entity, the Metallurgy and Mechanical Engineering Design Company (KOGÉPTERV). After the 1990 regime change the company dissolved. The office building was acquired by Matáv. The house, built in the characteristic socialist realist style of the 1950s, was declared protected in the 1990s; Matáv could not demolish it and therefore renovated it while preserving its original exterior form. Until 2018 it was the headquarters of the legal successor, Magyar Telekom.