Bar Szimpla
Bar Szimpla, one of Budapest's largest and most famous ruin bars, is located on Kazinczy Street in the city's historic Jewish quarter. Once a spectacular stone mansion with elegant balconies and tall windows, the building is now a dilapidated shell covered in graffiti, its cavernous interior centered on a sprawling courtyard. The courtyard is dotted with strange objects—a couch made from a bathtub, mannequins riding bicycles suspended in the air, and a gutted East German Trabant sedan serving as makeshift seating. High walls are adorned with a patchwork of spray-painted graffiti, Soviet-era posters, classical sculptures, and hanging plants spilling over interior balconies packed with patrons swaying to thumping electronic music. The air smells of cigarettes and beer, and young couples kiss openly while others discreetly smoke from small pipes and drink shots of pálinka, a popular Hungarian fruit brandy. The bar's entrance bears a phonetic spelling of the Hungarian word "egészségedre" (meaning "cheers") as an encoded message: "EGG-ESH-AY-GED-REH!"
Rabbi Köves's Flight and the Assassin's Pursuit
After fleeing his home following a warning call from an anonymous whistle-blower, Rabbi Yehuda Köves boards a city bus to escape a man in a baseball cap who had been tailing him. The bus is packed with raucous college students, and Köves rides past his intended stop at Dohány Street, fearing the man will follow him off. When the bus reaches the Jewish quarter, all the students disembark together, heading to the ruin bars. The man in the baseball cap remains seated, engrossed in his phone, but when Köves gets off, the man follows. Köves tries to lose himself in the crowd outside Bar Szimpla, but the man spots him from the courtyard below and sprints up the staircase. Köves flees deeper into the building, finding a cramped, urine-smelling corridor at the far end with a warped wooden door. He locks himself inside a bathroom and desperately calls 112, whispering in Hungarian that someone is trying to kill him.
The Assassin's Attack and Köves's Feigned Death
The assassin, having anticipated Köves's hiding place, bursts through the door with a single blow synchronized to the music's thunderous beat. He takes Köves's phone, ends the call, and tosses it into the toilet. When Köves asks who sent him, the killer replies, "The beauty of my situation is that I have no way to know." The old rabbi, wheezing and sweating profusely, suddenly begins gasping, his eyes bulging as he clutches his chest. He pitches face-first onto the grimy tile, his bladder emptying, and lies still. The killer, believing Köves has died of a heart attack, smirks and leaves the room. However, Köves had feigned the attack, holding his breath and lying motionless until the footsteps retreat. He waits, then begins to breathe again, raising his head. But the killer had not left; he was standing just inside the closed door, smiling down at him. The killer grabs Köves's neck, shoves his face into the floor, and injects a searing substance into his neck. This time, Köves's heart seizes for real, and he dies.
Thematic Significance
Bar Szimpla serves as a stark contrast to the sacred spaces of the novel—the Guggenheim Museum, the Abbey of Montserrat, and the Sagrada Família. It is a place of hedonistic abandon, where young people indulge in creature comforts, drinking, smoking, and dancing. The bar's dilapidated, chaotic environment mirrors the moral and spiritual decay that characters like Bishop Valdespino fear is overtaking the world. For Köves, a man who has spent his life counseling against overindulgence, the bar represents the very temptations he has warned against. His death in this setting—a grimy bathroom in a ruin bar—is a brutal, ignominious end for a respected religious leader, underscoring the novel's theme that the old world of faith is being violently supplanted by a new, chaotic, and secular order.
