Uránia National Cinema Palace

Budapest, Hungary

The construction of the Uránia's building was finished in the mid‐1890s on today's Rákóczi avenue. The design of the palace, built by Henrik Schmal at the request of Kálmán Rimanóczy, incorporates the Venetian Gothic and the Eastern Moorish styles. The architect was originally commissioned to create a music and dance hall, but the place finally opened as a cabaret. At the turn of the century the Hungarian Academy of Sciences initiated a search for a theatre where the Uránia Scientific Society could hold presentations illustrated by moving pictures. So the building was rented from 1899 by the Uránia Society and was given the strange name Uránia Hungarian Scientific Theatre. Later on the function of the building changed, but the name Uránia has remained ever since.