What is the importance of the town of Akrod in the novel, Abigail?

Several important scenes in the novel take place in Árkod, and all of them deal with the ways in which the sheltered girls of the Matula encounter signs of the war: the scandalous St. Nicholas’ Day service at the church of Árkod, during which the girls accidentally sing an anti-war psalm; passing by anti-war placards at the Monument to the Sorrows of Hungary; and Gina’s fateful meeting with her father at the Hajda Patisserie, where he tells her about his involvement in the anti-war effort. Gina first encounters the work of the Árkod dissident — who is actually Kőnig — at the Monument to the Sorrows of Hungary, in the Árkod town square, and Feri first makes contact with Gina in the Árkod church, since he is forbidden from speaking to her at the Matula. Árkod acts as a kind of interface between the cloistered world of the Matula and the world outside its walls, where the girls of the Matula pass by military personnel and civilians.