Hungarian National Bank Buys Buda Castle Villa For Ft3bn

  • 10 Dec 2014 8:00 AM
Hungarian National Bank Buys Buda Castle Villa For Ft3bn
The MNB has bought the Hatvany villa in the Buda Castle district for Ft 3.4 billion, and spent an additional Ft 1.9 billion on purchasing an adjacent building from the Academy of Sciences. These buildings will host an event and training centre and the MNB’s Ph.D. program will be located there, the central bank said.

The MNB has to fulfil ever increasing tasks that require new buildings, Matolcsy told Parliament’s economic committee yesterday.

The five-storey villa, also known as the Ybl villa and the Lónyay villa, enjoys panoramic views over the Danube.

The original villa was destroyed in WWII. A company purchased the site to restore the building, based on the original plans, but the work was suspended during the financial crisis, and the villa has been for sale since 2012.

The villa will be the centre of MNB foundation Pallas Athéné Domus Animae. It will also host a library.

The MNB set aside Ft 200 billion in August to fund five foundations to teach its views on finance and economics.

MNB has already purchased the former headquarters of the craftsmen’s guild Iposz in Budapest for Ft 500 million and a hospital building in Kecskemét for Ft 1.7 billion.

Source: Hungary Around the Clock

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MTI photo: Soós Lajos

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