Why it belongs in ORBIS
Atlantisz Könyvsziget is a Budapest bookshop associated with the Atlantisz publishing house. Its catalogue gives space to philosophy and the humanities, with books selected for readers looking beyond general bestseller lists. The shop occupies the corner of Király Street and Anker köz.
Atlantisz began in 1990 as the publishing offshoot of Medvetánc, described by the organization itself as the first uncensored though technically legal Hungarian social-theory journal to appear after 1956. When Hungary's political system changed in 1989, the journal's editorial circle -- including Miklós Tamás, László Tengelyi, Magdolna Kolta and László Grób -- converted the publication into a dedicated publishing house in partnership with Eötvös Loránd University, which provided workspace in a building on Váci utca. The name Atlantisz draws on both Plato's Atlantis myth and Francis Bacon's utopian writing, chosen to evoke, in the founders' words, "a world of intellectual dignity and freedom often hidden from everyday view." Both the publishing house and its companion Atlantisz Foundation operate as nonprofit institutions, oriented toward bringing previously unavailable European philosophy, history, religious studies, art theory and psychology into Hungarian translation. The Váci utca workspace grew into the first Atlantisz Könyvsziget (Book Island) bookshop, described as Central Europe's first dedicated book information center. The shop has since relocated to its current premises at the corner of Király utca and Anker köz, where it continues to operate as both retailer and public face of the publishing house's humanities-focused catalogue.