Budapest's largest wine cellar to be replaced by a hotel on the last empty plot of Paulay Ede Street

Polish hotel chain PURO Hotels, which typically operates four-star, modern hotels, is expanding its portfolio in Terézváros. Construction work on the hotel, which will have more than 200 rooms, began in May last year by Épszerk-Pannónia Invest Kft. began construction work on the hotel, which has more than 200 rooms, in May last year, with the opening planned for 2026. The building, which will feature a restaurant, café and bar, will also house meeting rooms, a spa and a fitness room.

From wine cellar to public garage

József Hild, one of the most important Hungarian architects of the 19th century, designed the first known building at 23 Paulay Ede Street in 1840. Rebuilt after the flood of 1838 and expanded with a huge cellar system during the reconstruction of 1845-1846, the house was purchased by wine merchant András Ferenc Jálics. As Miklós Vincze points out in his detailed article published on the 24.hu, Miklós Vincze points out:

The wine merchant, who insisted on the most modern means, had a horse-drawn carriage entrance built to the cellar, which easily served the European, overseas and even Far Eastern and South American markets.

One of Budapest's best-known merchant families sold the house in 1912, and after the First World War they moved out of the spacious underground spaces. Several companies took over, and in 1936 it became the property of the Opera Garage, a company that survived the siege of Budapest as a petrol station and motor service, but did not survive the nationalisation. In 1963 part of the site was handed over to the Ministry of Justice, and for the next 40 years it was used as the central garage of the Prison Service.

After several years of planning, the Treasury Property Directorate finally sold the building in 2008, and the newest hotel in Budapest, the 200+ room PURO Hotel, will be built on its site according to the plans of Archikon Építésziroda.

Prefabrication also helps the construction of reinforced concrete and steel structures

By April 2025, the structural work on the Épszerk-Pannónia Invest Kft. may be completed by April 2025, creating a ten-storey complex consisting of a base plate, three basement levels, a ground floor and six upper floors. Work is currently underway on the fifth floor. The rear courtyard of the future hotel will be surrounded on three sides by a roof terrace, while the street front will feature greyish-beige stone cladding and a medium-grey artificial slate roof, giving it a primary character. Closer up, the beige-coloured ribbed stone panels covering the ground floor walls, galvanised steel cladding and glass curtain walls will give the building with its regular façade a contemporary look.

As Peter Ilkei, the project manager of the ÉPI informed us, the company's tasks during the construction are

• complete reinforced concrete construction, which includes the construction of monolithic and prefabricated elements,
• the preparation of Voltex waterproofing under the baseplate and for basement perimeter walls,
• the XPS expansion insulation in the basement,
• masonry work in Silka, Ytong and small bricks,
• dilatation insulation of the parcel walls and
• the steel structure of the roof.

Difficult location and architectural curiosities also shape the work

A real challenge in the construction is the narrow working area and the small staging area due to the installation of the rack and pinion bridge, which requires multiple material handling and staggered work. The project manager highlighted the construction of the concrete structure in accordance with the client's preliminary requirements as a special interest:

"We also create surfaces with furry plank impressions, curved walls, ground floor oval pillars with exposed concrete surfaces and concealed lighting in stair treads."

Exposed reinforced concrete structures also appear in stairwells and corridor walls, which are also helped by prefabrication during the construction of superstructures: floor panels and stair stringers are also ÉPI factory, while the perimeter walls (packet walls) bordering the neighbouring buildings are supplied by Leier Hungária Kft..

The construction of the structure will therefore use state-of-the-art technology to breathe new life into a prime site that has been neglected for decades.