1864-1873 Lloyd Palace
The first headquarters of the Budapest Stock Exchange was Lloyd Palace. The neoclassical palace, designed by József Hild, was one of the most beautiful buildings in old Pest. The main façade, with its five-axis central colonnade and two five-axis side wings, presented a dignified, balanced appearance. The central mass of the building, with its central tympanum, was articulated with slender, two-storey high, jonic columns. From its very inception, the Stock Exchange has sought to have a building in its own right.
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1873-1905 New stock exchange building
The Budapest Commodity and Stock Exchange and the Lloyd Society jointly built the new headquarters on the corner of Wurm (today Wekerle Sándor) Street and Mária Valéria (today Apáczai Csere János) Street, where it operated from 1873 to 1905. The ground floor of the building, with a roof parapet decorated with gilded Mercury sculptures, housed the commodity trading, while the upper floor was the large room of the stock trading.
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1905-1948 Exchange Palace
The largest building of the old Budapest Commodity and Stock Exchange is the Szabadság Square Stock Exchange Palace, which is also of great importance for the architectural history of Budapest, where the Exchange operated from 1905 until its closure on 25 May 1948. It was designed by Ignác Alpár. The palace was 145 metres long and 41-61 metres wide; it was the largest of its kind in Europe. The gateway was adorned with two neo-Renaissance lion towers and a tympanum, on which sat Mercury and Hephaestus, the gods of trade and industry. The façade is made up of limestone from Süttő and Salskút, while the entrance hall is paved with marble and granite. The work was carried out by the Grünwald brothers and Miksa Schiffer, the decoration was carried out by the craftsmen of the Steindl guild, the decorative sculptor Ignác Langer, the stone carvers Béla Seenger and József Kauser, and the majolica decorations were made by the Zsolnay factory.
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"What is needed is a serious, persistent will on the part of each of us, directed to visit, use and animate the young institution frequently, perhaps at first with some sacrifice of our habits, our desires and our interests."
Baron Frigyes Kochmeister (1816-1907)
President of the BSE (1864-1900)"As regards freedom of action, our institution desires nothing more than to do what is in the interest of the country as a whole, and to be free from any unilateral tendency, as it has been far from seeking to cultivate its own interests at the expense of the common good. "
Baron Zsigmond Kornfeld (1852-1909)
President of the BSE (1900-1909)"Our poor mother, this dismembered Hungary is sick, seriously sick, and let us put aside all other interests, real or apparent, and keep in mind the only point of view: what is necessary, what is good for our poor, sick mother: Hungary."