The exciting story of the Hotel next to Kossuth Square, in the corner of Bajcsy-Zsilinszky and Piac Street, has to be known not only by the residents of Debrecen but also by each Hungarian person because we keep count of several famous Hungarian and foreign celebrities among the guests of the Hotel who formed history. But first of all let us have a look at the past: how Hotel Aranybika was born?
Its name was given after János Bika, the owner of the rock house and the stance, whose family had been the resident of Debrecen since 1536. The estate was bought from him in 1690 by the city. In 1699 the building was transformed into an Inn, and on its one hundred anniversary, a new floor was built on it. The famous sign of the butting bull was placed in the front of the building in 1810, 11 years later, which was made of iron and coated with copper. This is how the Inn became Aranybika (Golden bull) Hotel. The famous Hungarian architect Steindl Imre – who built the Parliament as well – redesigned the Hotel with one floor. The construction was accomplished in 1882, but its capacity proved to be too small thank to the guests staying for overnight, therefore the building was deconstructed 30 years later. The new eclectic style building was redesigned by Alfréd Hajós together with his co-engineer, Lajos Villányi. The new hotel was passed in 1915, whose typical attic was carved by Italian rock carver masters.
Alfréd Hajós, the “Hungarian dolphin”, architect, speed-swimmer, footballer, football game leader, journalist, the captain of the association of the Hungarian football team, and Olympic champion on the very first Olympic games in 1896.
In the hall of the Hotel we paid respect to him with a tablet for his eternal value creating work. In Aranybika Hotel we could accommodate and host several celebrities during their careers:
Esterházy Antal, Széchenyi István, Deák Ferenc, Wesselényi Miklós, Vörösmarty Mihály, Kossuth Ferenc (the son of Kossuth Lajos), Móricz Zsigmond (who wrote his last novel here), Horváth Árpád theatre director; after the second world war Dálnoki Miklós Béla kormányelnök, Vásáry István and Nagy Imre secretaries; and recently Bruno Kreisky Austrian and Helmut Kohl German chancellors.
Its owner József Boros is planning the overall renewal of the hotel in the following years.