The developer and planners for the recently opened Hotel Continental Zara has received the Podmaniczky award, which was handed over by Mihály Ráday, president of the architectural heritage preservation group Hungaria Nostra, resourceinfo.hu reports. The award was presented for the reconstruction of the building which was previously the Hungaria Baths, but had fallen into massive disrepair over the previous decades to the point that only the walled up façade remained.
The award, according to its own description, is bestowed upon those who go above and beyond the work expected of them to preserve Hungary’s architectural heritage. The recipients of the award were hotel owner Mazen Al-Ramahi, architect Péter Vékony and art historian Ferenc Bor.
Over the previous year, the hotel was painstakingly rebuilt so that all of its original features were recreated, with the result that the façade of the hotel appears just as it did when it was originally built over a hundred years ago, although prices to use the baths are somewhat higher these days, we suspect.