Stefánia Palace, Cultural center in XIV District, Budapest, Hungary
Stefánia Palace is a building featuring an octagonal central section with lower side wings in Budapest's XIV District. The exterior displays arched passages, pilaster strips, and recessed niches, while a modern theatre hall from 1978 accommodates around 486 seats and 50 accessible spaces inside.
Baron Atzél Béla and an aristocratic circle led by Count Eszterházy Mihály founded the Park Club, built by architect Meinig Artúr in neo-baroque style between 1893 and 1895 on Stefánia út and inaugurated on 1 May 1895. After severe damage in the Second World War it was nationalised and given to the Hungarian People's Army for recreation and culture; from 1952 into the 1980s amateur theatre groups performed in it. In 1978 the former casino hall became a theatre, and since 1993 it has formed one institution with the neighbouring Honvéd Cultural Centre.
The building was originally called Park Club; it has carried the name Stefánia Palota since 1993, when it was legally merged with the neighbouring Honvéd Cultural Centre, opened in 1979. From 1952 until the 1980s amateur theatre groups performed in it, and on 1 June 1978 the former aristocratic casino hall, linked to the upper terrace, opened as a theatre hall.
The main facade faces Stefánia út, and the carriage entrance was originally on the side now called Zichy Géza utca, then Pálma utca; from Stefánia út entry was on foot only. A wide staircase on each side leads up to the first-floor balcony, which runs around the building with projecting bays at both ends. The 1978 theatre hall replaced the former casino hall and its first-floor terrace.
The 1895 opening followed construction that began in April 1893 on six hectares bought for 120,000 forints. The grounds held a 500-square-metre lake fed by an artificial waterfall, with a small island used for boating in summer, plus three lawn-tennis courts, a bowling alley and a shooting house.
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