Palais Drechsler, Renaissance Revival palace in Budapest District VI, Hungary

Palais Drechsler stands at 25 Andrássy Avenue, opposite the Hungarian State Opera House. The three-storey building has four facades in early French Renaissance style, with a rusticated base, arcades, rows of arched and rectangular windows framed by pilasters and cornices, and a steep dark roof with a small spire, a pointed turret on the left and a taller pyramidal roof on the right. A projecting balcony band with a stone balustrade crosses the upper facade.

Architects Ödön Lechner and Gyula Pártos designed the building between 1883 and 1886 for the Hungarian State Railways Pension Institute. The structure reflects the architectural developments of that period in the city's urban landscape.

It housed the State Ballet Institute from 1949 to 2002, shaping generations of Hungarian dancers and their training. The building still carries the legacy of being a center for dance education and artistic development in the city.

The palace sits directly opposite the State Opera House and is easily reached via the Opera station on metro line 1. Its central location on Andrássy Avenue makes it a convenient stop while exploring the district.

The building is sometimes called the MÁV Palace, but that name is ambiguous: the Hungarian State Railways built several palaces along Andrássy Avenue. Its actual name comes from Béla Drechsler, whose café operated on the ground floor and whose surname passed to the whole building. Postcards from 1900 and 1903 call it the Drechsler Café and Restaurant, then the Drechsler Grand Restaurant.