The beginnings of the Lev Hotel
with the permission of Csaba Tolnai excerpts from his book “Levice in old photographs” are used
The dominant feature of Heroes' Square is undoubtedly the Lev Hotel. It was built on the site of the Lev Inn (Oroszlán vendéglő, Nagy fogadó) at the corner of Československá Armáda Street (formerly Teleky Street, facing Osmanské Square) and the main square. The original Lev Inn, which existed here in the mid-19th century, was destroyed by a fire in the stable in the early hours of 8 October 1879. After that, the building was left without a roof for some time. Theatrical performances were held under a shelter in the courtyard and it often happened that the audience watched them from under umbrellas. Despite the original plans for reconstruction, in 1904 the town council saddened the people of Levice by deciding to demolish the old inn.
Guesthouse and its tenants
One of its nine famous tenants was František Nyitrai. He sold wine from Levice vineyards in the inn. The last tenant was Jozef Fertikó. In addition to entertainment, accommodation and business premises, the owners of the inn rented out the premises to the Kasíno educational association, the Dalárda choir and others. The only theatre stage in the town was located here. The lower classes of the population were served by the so-called Drunken Tavern (Korhely kocsma) with folk prices. The new hotel building was designed by the Budapest architects József Vas and Nándor Morbitzer, winners of a competition in 1907. The hotel was built between 1909 and 1910 in the Art Nouveau style. It was handed over to the first tenant, Jozef Fertikó, on 10 December 1910. The new hotel had its proud place on the main square and was hardly rivalled in the provision of services. Meals from the hotel's restaurant of exceptional taste, quality Pilsner beer, prompt waiters, live music that played every evening, emphasis on cleanliness, comfortable accommodation and its own transport of guests by hotel carriage. This made the hotel well known in other towns as well.
Architecture and social life
Ako bolo pri podobných secesných stavbách zvykom, priamo na nároží bol vchod do kaviarne. V strede južného krídla bol vchod do hotelovej recepcie. Vestibulom, korunovaným kruhovou galériou, sa prechádzalo do skvostnej spoločenskej sály s bohatou štukovou výzdobou. Kaviareň a obchody s výkladnými skriňami chránili pred slnkom markízy. V teplých letných podvečeroch bolo pred kaviarňou najveselšie. Priestor pod markízami sa zmenil na letnú záhradu so stolmi a kreslami. Na terase si Levičania pochutnávali na zmrzline, o ktorej sa hovorilo, že „takú dobrú ani v Pešti nepredávajú“. Celkové architektonické poňatie exteriéru hotela Lev je vyváženou zmesou wagnerovskej a uhorskej secesie. Na prízemí sa nachádzal hostinec, reštaurácia, kaviareň s kartárskou miestnosťou a nájomné obchodné priestory so skladmi. Na poschodí je priečelie členené balkónmi. V štíte na nároží je umiestnený reliéfny erb mesta. Nad oknami na poschodí sa skvel nápis Mestský Veľký hotel, na južnom krídle (od pešej zóny) bol maďarský názov Városi Nagy Szálloda. Hotel bol obľúbeným miestom rytiera Gustáva Schoellera. Traduje sa, že rád chodieval do hotelovej vinárne, aby si vypočul cigánsku hudbu a neraz v nej minul nemalé peniaze. Do dejín hotela sa zapísal šatniar a dlhoročný pracovník Frico Friedmann, „figúrka“ dobre známa hotelovým hosťom najmä vďaka nevídanému zmyslu pre humor. Mestská reduta, Veľký hotel, hotel Denk – všetky tieto názvy v minulosti označovali hotel Lev. Budova patrila mestu, ktoré hotel prenajímalo. Nájomcovia hotelovej časti museli vlastniť hotelovú, kaviarenskú, výčapnícku a kinematografickú koncesiu. Nový hotel postavili sčasti na základoch staršieho hostinca. V pivničných priestoroch možno dodnes pozorovať pôvodné chodby a klenby. Jozef Fertikó, ktorý mal hotel do roku 1922, na vtedajšie pomery veľkú budovu vybavil zodpovedajúcim zariadením.
Apollo Cinema and technical innovations
In 1913, the Apollo cinema, the first permanent cinema in Levice, opened on its premises. At first, films were only shown during fairs, holidays, and other important days. Later, films were shown every day except Monday. On weekdays, there was one screening at 8:45 p.m. On Sundays, there were four screenings at 2:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m., and 8:30 p.m. The cinema was located in the hotel's large Art Nouveau theater hall. It was at the Lev Hotel that an invention by Jewish photographer and projectionist Žigmund Adler was born. He invented and constructed an automatic switch. It turned off the lights in the hall when the projector started. At the beginning of each performance, advertisements for Levice companies were projected from glass positives for about 15 minutes. Cinema visitors were also familiar with Mr. Schweier, who, as a blind man, accompanied silent films with his piano playing. Advertising banners, posters, and invitations to the cinema were placed on advertising pillars and on the terrace of the café. At that time, the hotel had 22 rooms, five business rooms, three apartments, a theater hall with 600 seats, a restaurant, a dining room, a large café, and accommodation for staff. The hotel had central heating, which was installed by the Budapest company Tórs és Ormai. In the courtyard, there were stables, warehouses, and a garage for a horse-drawn carriage. It was used to transport hotel guests to the train station.
Modernization and the golden age
Between 1922 and 1941, Ján Denk became the hotel's tenant, breathing unprecedented elegance and dignity into it. In 1933, the city, in cooperation with Ján Denk, had the hotel rebuilt and modernized. The number of guest rooms was increased from 22 to 25, and garages were built in the courtyard. The buses and cars parked in front of the hotel confirm that motoring had grown to significant proportions in Levice. A visit to the hotel restaurant was a suitable occasion for anyone who wanted to boast about their successes or show off their new car. The taxi rank in front of the hotel was one of the largest in Slovakia. The horse-drawn stagecoach used to transport guests had already been replaced by a bus. The annual rent for the hotel was 60,000 Czechoslovak korunas. The Hotel Lev met the hygiene standards of the time and, as it was well known in the wider area, guests liked to stay there. To the right of the main entrance was a café terrace on a wooden base. The retractable awnings sometimes had a striped pattern, other times they bore the inscription “Mestský hotel a kaviareň” (City Hotel and Café). The hotel café was bright and busiest on Saturday evenings, when customers came to relax and have fun after a busy week at work. Closing time was at two in the morning. In winter, the café was filled with merchants, artists, lawyers, and wealthy craftsmen who spent long evenings playing cards and debating, sitting at marble tables. There was a bar counter in the café. Well-groomed waiters always stood there, ready to serve guests.
The theater hall as a cultural center
For decades, the aforementioned theater hall was one of the largest enclosed spaces in the city and hosted the most important cultural and social events. In addition to cinema, traditional balls, dance parties, and theater performances, Levice associations organized various educational, sporting (table tennis championships, etc.), exhibition, lecture, and literary meetings there. Professionals and Levice amateurs often performed various theatrical pieces there. On Thursday, April 7, 1927, the famous Hungarian writer Móricz Zsigmond arrived in Levice by train with his wife. Many people from the surrounding area came to the theater hall to see and hear him live. In the theater hall of the Lev Hotel, both guests addressed the audience with a literary introduction. The Lev Hotel theater hall also hosted the Levice Symphony Orchestra, which was an important representative of our city. Fizély Karol, a locksmith from Levice and an important cultural activist, presented a new battery to the people of Levice in the hall, which he had built together with professors Š. Farbaký and Š. Schenek from the Mining Academy. As is often the case, not only pleasant events took place in the hall, but also violent, rowdy clashes between groups with different opinions and political views. On more than one occasion, demonstrations and political rallies held by communists or national socialists had to be broken up by the truncheons of the Levice gendarmes, and the brawlers had to go and cool their heads at the gendarmerie station.
Business life and streets around the hotel
The ground floor of the hotel housed shops rented by various merchants (for example, Ľudovít Kertész). There was also Holzmann's fashion store with women's and men's ready-to-wear clothing or Gambaté's grocery store. The large display cases were converted into divided window panes. It was under them that street tinkers (köszörűsök), knife and scissors sharpeners and umbrella repairers worked on their "miraculous machines", attracting the attention of the people of Levi with the cry of "köszörűzni!!!". The master pushed the entire device with a small wheel so that it could move from place to place. The large wheel powered a stone that sharpened dull objects. An advertising board to the left of the display case on the hotel building warned about Ľudovít Kertész's delicatessen. The children of Levi loved to grin at the guests sitting in the café through the glass window panes and show them various grimaces. In the window of Ľudovít Kertész's delicatessen, a painted sign advertising Julius Meinl coffee was visible. In the immediate vicinity of the hotel was Vojtech Sokol's brick kiosk. Thanks to the sale of southern fruits, vegetables, nuts, roasted chestnuts, and fruits known as "manna" (the elongated pods of an exotic tree contained hard seeds from which the nuns from the so-called Zárda made rosaries), aniseed pelendrek, sweets, and carob bread, it was a good feast for the eyes of all passers-by.
Neon signs and traffic
In the late 1930s, a neon sign on the facade and roof attracted evening guests. The beams shone with the inscriptions "MESTSKÝ HOTEL DENK" and "Kino APOLLO VÁROSI SZÁLODA" in capital letters made of sheet metal, approximately 1 meter high. During the complex reconstruction work in 2013, the letters N and K were found in the hotel's attic. Another interesting feature of the reconstruction of the hotel's external facade was the original Hungarian inscription shining through in the upper corner. The 1920s and 1930s marked a rapid expansion of motoring. In Levice, there were petrol stations on the main square and buses parked in front of the hotel on both sides of Bátovská Street (today SNP Street). There were several petrol stations on the square and their position changed from time to time. They belonged to various oil companies (Naftaspol, Vesta, Apollo, Vacuum Oil Company and others) and were managed by various tenants (Kohn and Blasz, etc.). The underground tanks had a volume of 2,000 to 4,000 l and were stored 2.2 m below road level. The operators were responsible for safety, ecology and paid the city for the rent. In 1925, there were eight passenger cars, five trucks, three motorcycles, two buses and 187 bicycles in Levice. In 1933, there were already 110 passenger cars, 37 trucks, 12 tractors, 30 motorcycles, seven buses and 1,200 bicycles. At that time, the Vojtech Jancsovits driving school already existed in the city. Mercedes buses, operated by entrepreneurs Stránsky, Sojka or Laufer, provided transport in the city. Other buses of several transport companies operated not only to the surrounding villages, but also to more distant cities such as Budapest, Bratislava, Komárno, Banská Bystrica, Banská Štiavnica, Sklené Teplice, etc. The bus was boarded from the back and the fare was collected on the bus.
An essential landmark of the city of Levice is the cultural and historical monument HOTEL LEV, which has been providing services to its customers for more than 100 years. It embodies the history of architecture, traditions and culture of the Slovak nation. Our goal is, in addition to preserving these values, primarily to provide quality services and to convey the experience of every moment you spend with us.
