Pongrácz Erzsébet: The Cinemas of Budapest - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1998)

Bartók (1912)

64 Bartók Béla út, district XI

As early as the 1910s, screenings were held in the rooms of a converted shop on a corner-plot of today’s Móricz Zsigmond körtér. Simplon Movie, as the place was called, had a seating capacity of 230. The success of the enterprise was such that audiences from the neighbourhood soon outgrew that capacity. Thus the owner, Gyula Gyárfás, responded in the thirties by launching the construction of a new cinema with a capacity of 630, to which establishment he transferred the familiar name Simplon. The building, which combined an apartment block with a cinema, was the first of its kind in Budapest. Erected on a corner plot ending in an acute angle, the building was constructed to plans by Gábor Preisich and Mihály Vadász,

with designs for the cinema contributed by Zoltán Révész. Gyárfás managed his cinema with a high degree of expertise. After World War II the establishment was briefly known as Cljbuda Cinema, though it later operated under the name of Szabadság Cinema. After being nationalised, it was renamed again, this time receiving its present name, Bartók. In 1981 the interior, and in 1983 the technical equipment were modernised. As a venue for new releases showing from morning to night, the Bartók is among the favourite cinemas in the Lágymányos area of Buda.

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