Iconic Corvin Palace Shines Again in its Former Glory

The renovated Corvin department store will open at the end of August under the name Corvin Palace on Blaha Lujza Square in Budapest. The netting covering the facade, which has been restored to its original state, was ceremoniously removed from the building on Tuesday.

After the presentation of the old-new facade of the department store, which opened in 1926, Viktor Balogh, one of the owners and operators of Corvin Áruház Kft. told journalists that the renovation of the building will cost a total of about 8 billion forints (21.7 million euros), which will be financed from the company’s own funds and with the help of Raiffeisen Bank. The restoration of the facade cost around 1 billion forints (2.7 million euros).

In addition to common areas, the building will also house stores and offices, most of which have already been leased, while negotiations are still underway for the majority of the offices. About half of the 16,000-square-meter space will be used for retail, while the other half will be used for offices.
Olivér Balogh, an owner of the Corvin, said few Budapest residents can remember what the Corvin looked like in its original glory.

Everyone we talked to, whether old, middle-aged, or young, has a story to tell about Corvin,

said the department store owner, citing as examples people who met someone who rode an escalator here for the first time, or who hatched carrier pigeons for the Hungarian Post Office, or the youngest had memories of going to the movies on the building’s roof.
András Pikó, mayor of the capital’s 8th district, thanked the owners and the Corvin Palace team for their work to save and create value. He stressed that the store will fit in well with the renewed Somogyi Béla Street, Blaha Lujza Square, and the Palace District and will help make the city a home.
Gergely Karácsony, the mayor of Budapest, said that “historic crimes” had been committed in the past in Blaha Lujza Square, including the demolition of the former National Theater and the cladding of the original Corvin store with an aluminum facade.
The mayor described the joint reappraisal of the city’s traumas as symbolic, including the return of the department store’s original facade to the people of Budapest.

The Corvin department store is a listed department store in the VIII District of Budapest. It is considered one of the oldest and most famous in the city. The department store was opened on March 1, 1926 and was owned by the Hamburg merchant Max Emden and his company M. J. Emden and Sons. The building, located on Blaha Lujza Square, was originally in the classicist style and was built according to the plans of Zoltán Reiss. In addition to stores, the department store also contained a restaurant and a coffee house; it was also the first building in Budapest with an escalator. In September 1956, people could watch television through the Corvin window for the first time.

The building suffered severe damage during World War II and during the Hungarian National Uprising in 1956. After 1945, it was run in a modernized form by various state and cooperative retail companies. The neoclassical facade was covered with aluminum in 1967, suffering further damage.

Featured image: Facebook/Karácsony Gergely