By the end of the Ottoman occupation in 1686, Pest, a mostly Magyar-inhabited market town at the meeting point of important trade routes, lay in ruins, but in a few decades it regained strength. At that time, the stern stone blocks of a redoubt for the defence of the city stood in the area of today’s Vigadó tér, which was on the northern boundary of Pest.

In 1789 the redoubt was demolished so as to be replaced by a theatre building, however , it was not built for quite a while due to lack of funds. The Pest public nevertheless, did not cease demanding a ballroom, and, so, finally, Mihály Pollack was commissioned to start construction in 1829. This building, the predecessor of today’s Vigadó, proved to be one of the finest pieces of neoclassical architecture in Pest, and it came to be called the Redoute.The Redoute was opened in January 1833 with a grand ball, yet, for all merriments, it was also a venue of the highest culture – the only concert hall in Pest at the time.