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

cinema it always released films in the same week that one or another of the major Pest cinemas also opened a show. This practice was terminated during World War II, in the course of which the building sustained severe damage. Unfortunately, as time rather than quality was the major consideration during its reconstruction, no attention was paid to being faithful to the historical features of the architecture. Another casualty was the cinema’s name, since it reappeared under the name of May 1. However, the establishment regained both its original interior and exterior appearance in the 1980s. As a result of painstaking renovation, the building received a fagade similar to the original and the covering materials of the interior spaces and the upholstery of the auditorium as well as the mirror walls of the foyer were all restored to their earlier form. The cinema is still a favourite with Buda filmgoers, but the opening of a new multiplex planned for Széna tér nearby is likely to put an end to the history of this picture house, too.

Broadway (1938)

3 Károly körút, district VII

Broadway Cinema, variously called Barlang (Cavern), Ady and Filmmúzeum Cinema in previous times, is one of the strangest picture houses of Budapest in terms of its architectural design, so much so that it could well be called the Basement Cinema. The design, by that time very popular in Vienna, was only authorised in 1938 by the rigorous, conservative Hungarian fire department. That was when its owners opened the only cinema in Budapest which has

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