In a town somewhere in Hungary with historical and cultural value
we discovered one of the most beautiful ballrooms of the whole country.
As one of the few cinemas in the region, this used to be the center of attraction for art lovers and the youth.
The last screening, however, was already ten years ago
and since then the stately theater has been rotting away at a rapid pace.
Lately, it has become an insider’s tip of the local urbex community.
We were one of the first international photographers when we explored this place.
It’s hard to believe that such an architecturally impressive structure lies forgotten within the city center.
As the last visitors of the theater we’re trying to bring history to life and show you the beauty of decay.
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Hungary has some of the coolest abandoned places we know of.
So, it was only a matter of time until we would start a road trip to this country.
In the first episode of our new series you could already see fascinating derelict palaces which we explored as the kick-off to our journey.
We managed to delve into the moving history of these sites.
Also the grand architecture made a lasting impression.
But actually, all of that was just a taste of what we should experience in today’s episode.
We didn’t know anything about the place we wanted to explore on that day.
Our Italian friend Tobi was in close contact with two French adventurers who just recently shared the location with us.
We arranged a mutual exploration with them.
But as always, we were running late.
Since they were already taking pictures inside, we had to find a way into the former cinema on our own.
At first, we couldn’t believe that this would be the right spot.
The exterior façade was damaged completely and the whole building complex looked rather like abandoned construction works than a historical theater.
We thought, if this was the spot, it would be a disgrace for the town.
How can they let a cultural center go to rack and ruin like this?
This is what we wanted to find out.
And apparently, we were at the right place.
An inconspicuous door was leading us to the imposing entrance hall.
Let’s just hope this thing isn’t turned on.
Guys, this was only the foyer.
What else can be expecting us here that can top this?!
To make it a bit more interesting for you, we share the history of the place we were researching after our exploration.
Actually, the cinema was only a small part of a larger building complex with moving past.
Originally, the site was constructed as hotel.
Its story already started in the 14th century.
But the way it looks today, the hotel wasn’t built before 1890.
Only after a communization in consequence of World War Two, several refurbishments and extensions
as well as numerous changes of name it became the popular entertainment center it was until its closure around 1990.
Located at the biggest and most important road in the middle of the city, this building complex combined restaurant,
night club, clothing store, barber shop, cine club and the theater itself.
The picture palace probably opened in the 60s and even outlived the end of the hotel.
Back to us.
We’re still in the entrance hall.
We just noticed that a dove built its nest at the coolest spot.
If we went down the corridor behind the camera now, we would reach the hotel part.
But it is rather boring and stripped.
We don’t need to show this.
Instead we were walking up and approached the cinema hall.
Here we finally met the two French urbexers who are obviously brothers .
Together we’re photographing more intriguing architecture.
Behind these formerly completely mirrored doors the centerpiece of the cinema is located:
The main ballroom.
So, let's mute our phones and dive into another world.
This looks more like a traditional theater than a modern cinema, right?
After another major picture palace in the city had to shut down,
the management of this facility decided to change the profile completely in order to guarantee economic survival.
The place became an art cinema and mainly avant-garde films were shown.
The entrance fees, however, remained super cheap.
This should be one of the reasons why the theater perished in the end.
In this image you can see the last show in 2008.
Since then the building has been vacant.
The projectors were given to another cinema in the town which had to deal with outdated equipment for years.
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For ten years the cinema has been falling apart now and it's striking to see how little vandalism you can find here so far.
We only spotted some graffiti but the main rooms have been spared.
Unfortunately, most parts of the building ensemble are completely empty.
During a multi-year remediation operations simply discontinued.
Due to the bumbling demolition and construction works the structure was partly damaged beyond repair.
As a matter of fact, the hotel, which was closed down 30 years ago, was supposed to be revived again.
Instead there's now a massive ruin downtown.
We felt watched the whole time.
Due to the central location the streets around the building were quite busy.
Because of the missing windows in most parts, pedestrians could have spotted us quite easily.
Luckily, nobody was expecting foreign daredevils to be inside the old walls.
That's why people simply overlooked us.
There's a last highlight we kept from you so far.
Here you can see a popular restaurant and how it used to look a long time ago.
It's located exactly below the cinema hall.
For that, we have to go back to where we started though.
As you might be able to guess from taking a look at those images over the door,
the former restaurant was used as a night club the last few years before the cinema was shut down.
You could mistake those pillars for dancing poles
but actually, nothing here is reminding of the time when this saloon was used as a striptease bar.
Today, you only find splendid architecture and great decay.
So, how will the future of this unique place look like?
In fact, we can be optimistic.
The city bought the building complex back a while ago.
The restoration to its former glory would cost many million Euros; that's for sure.
But plans for a comeback already exist.
That this will be a cinema again, is highly unlikely though.
Anyway, we would be happy to see the forgotten paradise be highly frequented again in the future.
Not by scrap metal thieves and vandals but by residents and businessmen.
It would be a shame to let such a historical place be buried in oblivion.
However, now we want to get out of here.
Our French friends already left like an hour ago.
And guys, we literally picked the worst day for this infiltration.
There was a huge event going on in the city and there were people everywhere.
There was no way to keep a low profile.
But since we didn't want to stay overnight here, we simply tried our luck.
We jumped over the wall when the coast was about to be clear.
We think, that we didn't get spotted and so, we finished another epic exploration.
So, this was the third of eight locations we were filming on our road trip.
It was definitely the right choice to pick Hungary as destination for our next adventure.
It was already late when we reached our place for the night.
We decided to take an Airbnb because we had to recharge the batteries of our equipment.
This was for sure one of the weirdest lodgings we had on our travels so far.
And it was also the reason why we spent all the other nights of this trip outdoors.
However, we simply had to sleep in a real bed because on that next day we needed to be well rested.
We needed full focus and all of our energy because we were about to start maybe the craziest action of our whole urbex career so far.
These photos were taken by crew member Tobi.
For more images check out his profile on the gram.
He's exploring all of Europe.
On his account you will find numerous breathtaking places we haven't visited so far.
Massive shout-out to both of the French urban explorers who have shared this gorgeous abandoned site with us.
We really recommend checking out backtothepast_ and urbextrips on Instagram as well.
The brothers are also seeing the whole of Europe and are taking great pictures.
As always you can find every link in the video description.
By the way, there you also find the music we're using.
Next time on Broken Window Theory:
It was an early morning start.
Previous to an exploration of an old power plant, our guide Tobi was telling us the plan for the infiltration one last time.
What's good: He already has been there before and knows all the ways.
What's bad: He didn't want to join us because it was one of the riskiest missions in his whole life.
We will see how this will be working out.
After that, we head to another abandoned powerhouse.
This colossus is well protected as well and it was no easy exploration because it took several unexpected turns.
Stay tuned for the most exciting episode of the whole series.
How do you like our new series so far?
Leave a like and comment and please share the video with your friends.
Check out the links to Patreon and those other urbexers now in the video description
or just watch another one of our numerous high-quality episodes.
Thanks, see you next time and keep exploring!