A Background to Budapest's Ruin Bars

Ruin bars – romkocsma – lend a unique feature to Budapest's nightlife. These low-priced drinking joints first appeared in the early 2000s inside the open-air courtyards of neglected pre-war buildings that barely escaped the bulldozers. Ruin bars are primarily found within Budapest's historic Jewish Quarter, also known as the inner part of District 7, an area that was witness to the darkest period of the city's history.

In March 1944, Nazi Germany occupied Hungary because it worried that Hungary might switch sides as Germany was losing WWII. Jewish people were initially ordered to move into so-called starred houses, but in November of 1944 an actual ghetto was set up in the Jewish Quarter crammed with more than 70,000 people. The ghetto's walls stood along Dohány utca, Károly körút, Király utca, and Kertész utca.

Unlike in the Hungarian countryside where nearly all Jewish people were deported to Auschwitz and killed, the Soviet army liberated the Budapest ghetto in January 1945 before deportations could begin. Still, thousands died in the ghetto of hunger and epidemics; they are buried in the mass grave of the Dohány Synagogue complex known as the Garden of Remembrance (here, more details about Budapest's Jewish past and present).

Budapest remains the largest Ashkenazi city in continental Europe today with about 100,000 people but the Jewish Quarter is no longer a majority-Jewish neighborhood. The area quickly deteriorated during the post-war period when many people moved out and into the suburbs.

The revival started with the 1989 fall of Communism which coincided with a general re-urbanization trend across Europe. Being just steps from the historic city center, real estate developers viewed the Jewish Quarter as an attractive area for construction as many pre-war buildings were cleared of its residents and destined for demolition. This was when ruin bars appeared; many indeed remained a temporary, seasonal indulgence but some of them survived.

As ruin bars became popular, owners filled their spaces with second-hand furniture to accommodate the rising number of guests. This resulted in wildly eclectic interiors where nothing matched but everything belonged. While ruin bars have downsides such as increased noise levels, littering, and overcrowded streets, they also benefited the neighborhood by reviving vacant buildings and attracting an influx of young people which in turn drew more businesses. It is in large part thanks to ruin bars that the Jewish Quarter is among the most fashionable pockets of Budapest currently.

Opened by a group of creatively minded recent college graduates in 2004, Szimpla Kert is the mother of all ruin bars. Today, Szimpla hardly resembles the modest bar of its infancy; it is one of Budapest’s main tourist attractions and a line forms outside its entrance every night of the week. But Szimpla's founding philosophy still holds true: provide an open space for anyone and everyone to enjoy. Unlike other ruin bars that cashed in on their popularity, Szimpla continues to foster the local community, for example by giving platform to up-and-coming local bands and hosting a farmers' market every Sunday between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Prices have also remained reasonable.

Thanks to the success of ruin bars, different adaptations have sprung up, including more upscale versions (Mazel Tov) and some even in Buda, across the Danube, away from ruin bars' native birthplace (Manyi). As with any naturally occurring alternative scene that spreads into the mainstream, sanitized, less genuine places have emerged that call themselves ruin bars. Trust your instincts – if the furnishings feel too perfect and the prices too high, you will know it is time to move on.