Lónyay-Hatvany Villa (Ybl-villa), ceiling and interior design

The villa was built between 1870 and 1872 on an Ottoman-era bastion, the "Golden Bastion" (Aranybástya), after the designs of Miklós Ybl, on the initiative of Menyhért Lónyay, who served as minister of finance in 1870 and as prime minister from 1871 to 1872. The painter and art collector Ferenc Hatvany bought it in 1915. It was destroyed by a bombing raid during the Second World War.

In the late 1990s the restoration was entrusted to the architect József Kerényi, before BORD Architects, led by Péter Bordás, took the project over. The rebuilt villa was inaugurated in September 2021 as the renovated seat of the Batthyány Lajos Foundation. The interior spaces are the work of Tadao Ando and the English designer Ilse Crawford.

The present building keeps the volume and the interior layout of the original villa. Below ground level, the abutment designed by Ybl, which narrows towards the top and rests on buttresses, is a defining element of the spaces. This is where the Bástya room lies: a 120-seat concert hall, exhibition rooms and a garden in which medieval ruins are left visible.

Tadao Ando designed the suspended plasterboard ceiling, oval and gently domed, that unifies the terraced space of this part.

Today the top floor of the villa is used for official functions; offices lie below it, and the Aranybástya restaurant occupies the ground floor. The villa offers eight spaces for events.

The restaurant is open every day from 12:00 to 22:00; tables can be booked up to fourteen days ahead. The villa stands on Castle Hill, at 1 Csónak utca.