Do you like urban legends? Budapest has a lot. This is the story of a coffee-palace and an evil spirit. (photographs: Kerékgyártó Zoltán)

 It is sure, New York Palace is one of the most imposing, luxury cafee-palaces in the world. Between the two world war, it was the centrum of the intellectual life of Budapest, like Pilvax earlier. Poets, writers, actors and actresses, directors, journalists met here, many of the most popular poems, plays and novels were written at the tables of the coffee house.

 You can visit this beatuful place, you are able to taste the beverages and the dishes of the house, and you will not be dissapointed with it.

 But if you read the story of the coffee-palace, you will find a pretty urban legend among the stories. On the outer side of the buliding you can see 16 devil or faun statues on the wall. Everyone, who writes about the palace, sais, that tehese satues simbolise El Asmodáj, the ancient spirit of the coffee and the free thinking.

 Ancient spirit of the coffee? I would be funny, the European people had got to know it in the 16th century. In fact there is no ancient spirit or god of the coffee, and in in reality El Asmodáj or Asmodeus is a very evil spirit in the Jewish and in the Islamic religion.

 But who cares? We love urban legends, and New York Palace is fantastic.