Kazinczy utca and the Birth of the Ruin Bars
Why is it significant?
Look through the gateways along this stretch of Kazinczy utca. Behind peeling facades you may glimpse courtyards strung with lights, old bathtubs turned into sofas, mismatched chairs, bicycles hanging from walls and plants growing out of broken windows.
Key Facts
| Place | Kazinczy utca and the Birth of the Ruin Bars |
|---|---|
| Address | Kazinczy utca 14, 1075 Budapest, Hungary |
| Geo Coordinates | 47.49690, 19.06330 |
| Part of Walk | Three Synagogues and a Tree of Life: Budapest's Jewish Quarter from Gozsdu to Dohány Street |
| Generated | Generated |
Look through the gateways along this stretch of Kazinczy utca. Behind peeling facades you may glimpse courtyards strung with lights, old bathtubs turned into sofas, mismatched chairs, bicycles hanging from walls and plants growing out of broken windows. Welcome to the home of the ruin bars, or romkocsma in Hungarian.
They are a direct consequence of everything you have heard so far. After 1945 the quarter lost most of the people who had made it, and under communism its old houses were nationalised, divided up and left to decay. By the 1990s whole buildings stood empty, waiting for developers who wanted to tear them down. In the early 2000s a few groups of friends had a simple idea: rent a condemned building cheaply for a summer, drag in any furniture they could find, and open a bar.
It worked beyond anyone's dreams. One of the first and most famous, founded in 2002, moved a couple of years later into an old building on this very street, and visitors from all over the world began arriving to see it. Others followed in empty houses and courtyards all over the seventh district. Some are still chaotic and cheap, some have become polished, and several host markets, film nights and concerts by day.
Not everyone was happy. Long-time residents complained about noise and crowds, and the district argued for years about how to balance nightlife with the people who live here. Others point out that the bars saved buildings that would otherwise have been demolished, and kept the old courtyards alive when no one else wanted them.
Stand still for a moment and notice what you are standing in: a street where the Orthodox synagogue, kosher shops and party crowds share a few hundred metres. Almost nowhere else in Europe does Jewish history sit this close to a night out. Now continue south to the end of Kazinczy utca and turn right into Dohány utca. Two onion-domed towers will appear above the rooftops.