NÁDOR HISTORY - Startpage - Nádor Galéria

Hotel Nádor - Temporary exhibition space

Purchased together with trafficker Eduard Schonherr the ground from the city, on which later to be built a guest house and coffee-house under the title of „Nádor”. This is how the history of the Nádor Hotel and its restaurants, beer houses and coffee-house began. It opened up for the public with 30 rooms late autumn 1846. The plans were drawn up by the local architect József Piatsek and construction of the building was completed within 1 year. The building housed the biggest and most exclusive hotel and coffee-house of Pécs and quickly became one of the centres of city’s cultural life. The silver-ware was brought in from Vienna (naturally supplied with the Nádor inscription), the blood-thinning mocha fluid, the Punsch and Liqueur from Prague. Kids’ needs were also catered for in the hotel. They were allowed to sample Chocolate or other pastries. József Nádor, the eponymous royal bureaucrat was saluted for his fifty years of work by naming the hotel after him.
During the war of independence of 1848-1849, the Royal and Caesarean troops installed their head quarters here as well. The Nádor quickly became one of the symbols of Pécs. The founder and owner of the hotel, Eduárd Schönherr, passed away in 1854, and the shine and splendour of the Nádor started to fade henceforth.
With the completion of the Budapest-Pécs rail road in 1882, the Nádor needed to be changed. Even though renowned guests (Prielle Kornélia, Blaha Lujza) still stayed in the hotel, the earlier partying companies started to stay away. In the good old days, the intelligentsia of the Baranya, Tolna and Somogy provinces all gravitated toward Pécs, only knowing one hotel; the Nádor... the royal figures of the olden days started to stay away, other hotels were erected and these attracted the gay crowds with their new modern interiors. The splendour of the Nádor was only again restored towards the end of the nineties when István Skrobay, a renowned hospitality entrepreneur rented the building. Apart from the restoration, he tended to the needs of the customers by inviting nationally known musicians. The new Pali Horváth orchestra with members arriving from Paris and Budapest, is hosting a musical soiree. Excellent bass solo. Unmatched in its own category.
In 1901, the owner Mihály Schönherr passed away, his daughter Erzsébet and her husband Béla Perczel inheriting the hotel. They asked the architect Imre Schlauch to transform the by then dilapidated Nádor hotel. Under the management of Imre Schlauch the hotel was demolished and a new secession style building was erected in its place which served the public for 86 years. The demolition and construction works only took 8 months. Novelties were: central heating and electrical lighting. The floors were covered with soft Persian rugs, crystal chandeliers from Venice were dangling from the ceiling, and the bar’s walls and floor were covered with noble wood. The Nádor then was characterised by a discreet elegance. The glass roof of the winter garden was opened when the weather permitted this, giving the guests the possibility to converse under a starlit sky. The renovation works were based on the Pannónia hotel in Budapest. The halls of the Nádor housed billiard competitions and card games, the band of Guszti Rácz and Ferkó Garai catered for the music.
After WW1 and up until the Great Global Depression, the hotel was run by Ede Szigethy. Following the bankruptcy of the hotel, the Pannónia Brewery of Pécs acquired the hotel at an auction. The coffee-house remained the focal point of the night-life of Pécs. The „Fészek Grill” (Nest Grill) bar opened up and a dance floor, a stage and a wine cellar were at the disposal of the guests.
By June 1936, the Nádor remained the only coffee-house of Pécs – during the boom, gipsy music played at the marble tables of 12 other coffee-houses.
Even following WW2, the hotel did not close down; it came into the property of the state. This was when the hotel became the centre of literary life of Pécs. In 1956, the occupying Soviet forces chose the Nádor as the centre for their operations. In the sixties, life revived again. Soviet professors, artists, politicians, conductors, writers, actors, Swiss couples, English lords, Italian merchants and of course tourists were handing over the rooms to each other.
Among the regular guests were Bulcsú Bertha, Ervin Lázár, István Csukás, Csorba Győző, Nándor Várkonyi, Gyula Illyés, Tibor Déry … and Ferenc Bessenyei, Szendrő, György Kálmán, László Mensáros, Péter Haumann, András Bálint, Imre Eck, Cecília Esztergályos, Ilona Medveczky … and even Imre Sinkovits and his wife spent their honeymoon in the Nádor, Zoltán Latinovits stayed here as well, and because the film festivals were held here: Antal Páger, Manyi Kiss, Mari Törőcsik … Lászlo Puskás and the Golden Team slept here…
Bands performed within the „Five o’clock Tea” programme series and the „Gastronomical Weeks” gave the visitors the opportunity to taste the food specialities of other nations. The Nádor kitchen continually offered its own speciality: the Nádor roll. Towards the end of the eighties, the building became obsolete, and its doors were closed in 1989. In 1999, the Danubius Hotels Group purchased the building, and in 2001, the plans of Pécs’ architects András Horváth and Zorán Patartics were approved for the tender for the renovation of the building. Thanks to the 700 million Forint investment of the Danubius Hotel Group in 2005, the façade of the building was restored and parking garage was created. In the summer of 2009, the temporary Nádor Gallery opened its doors. The story continues.

Robert Balogh