György Szegő

The Gozsdu Court in the Jewish Triangle

 

Buda, Old-Buda (Óbuda, Alt-Ofen) and Pest were legally united as Budapest in 1873, during a period of unprecedented economic upswing and urban growth. The newly named and rapidly expanding metropolis, radiating avenues and boulevards from its centre, was in the vanguard of Hungarian modernisation, one which combined a specifically national spirit and a powerful drive towards urbanisation. What had been the bustling quarters of Greek and Armenian merchants, the marketplaces of Serb fishermen, the vineyards and orchards of Bulgarian and German settlers gave way to tenement houses and lavish public buildings. The landed gentry, with their town houses in the Palace Quarter of Pest, enterprising German and Jewish burghers, embracing Magyarisation and assimilation with enthusiasm along with a cultural and professional elite, drove the process which created the city as we now know it, despite the subsequent ravages of war and the (fortunately not too numerous) mindless interventions by planners over the last half century.
Today little is left of what used to be a checkered board of extraordinary ethnic diversity, of cities within the city. For Budapesters, the still-used street names themselves are evocative of this past: Dohány (Tobacco), Holló (Raven), Király (King), Dob (Drum), Síp (Whistle). The dense Jewish quarter which had evolved by mid-nineteenth century in the Terézváros and Erzsébetváros districts (at that time the latter was part of the former) is the only one left, a maze of alleys flanked by the three great synagogues as its geographical and spiritual cornerstones (hence its name: the Jewish Triangle) though in dilapidation and decay. The arrogance of money and sheer indifference are no less to blame for the state of affairs than the ravages of time.

 

The Orczy House and the associations

For an entire century after the Turks were driven out, Jews were barred from settling in Pest, indeed they were not even allowed to stay overnight in the city.
The first concession was made in 1755, when Jews were permitted to attend markets and fairs in the town. Prior to this concession, there were Jews who were granted temporary sojourn (the so-called commorans). The real breakthrough came with the Edict of Toleration issued by Joseph II in 1783. Jews started to move from Óbuda to the environs of the Kaiser Karl Barracks (today's City Hall), whose canteens they in fact rented and ran, contributing to the rapidly growing communities of Terézváros and Erzsébetváros. Slowly, the Jewish quarter of Pest began to emerge around the area where today's Király Street runs into Madách Square. A Jewish market was set up on the northern side of today's Madách Square, with merchants selling grain, livestock, leather and textiles, and it gradually spread all the way down Király Street. As the Jewish population of Pest grew, the organisation and differentiation of various religious communities got under way. Jewish clubs and associations built their houses of worship and communal buildings within the area, the most important operatingin the Orczy House on the east side of the present Károly Boulevard, which was built in the early 1700s. The Orczy family, enlightened aristocrats, showed itself receptive towards the Jewish tenants who settled in Pest. The Orczy House was the largest tenement in Pest around the time, with three hundred homes based around two courts, and with time it was completely taken over by Jews.
Called Judenhof, this metropolitan shtetl, close to the marketplace, was also used for storage purposes and became a kind of Jewish centre, complete with a ritual slaughterhouse, a kosher restaurant and a café, a Jewish bookshop, ritual baths, religious associations and with a commodity exchange in its main hall. The Café Orczy was a household name for one and a half century, famous not only for its strictly kosher (glatt-kóser) kitchen but also for its grain and leather merchants and Jewish teachers. As the novelist Zsigmond Móricz wrote, "here the Balkans and the West, as well as Vienna, held hands."
Giving to charity was quite common. The Jewish Scholarship Association supported the education of the young. Various Talmud-Torah Associations were set up for the cultivation of religious studies, the oldest of them being the National Israelite Teachers' Society, established in 1866. Industrial associations were established to support apprentices, and there was an organisation as well for the collection and distribution of donations in support of young Jews working in agriculture. In 1842, the Israelite Community of Pest founded the first institution for Jewish vocational training, the Hungarian Jewish Crafts and Agriculture Union, among whose supporters were Lajos Kossuth and the Palatine Joseph. Last but not least, cultural associations were established to promote literature and the arts. The second half of the 19th century saw the construction of buildings planned as houses of worship and public places for the discussion of social and religious issues, mostly in Terézváros and Erzsébetváros.
Following the Holocaust, there was little more left for the few survivors to revive secular Jewish life than the barber's shops, the ritual slaughterhouses, the second-hand bookshops or, outside the Jewish quarter, the terraces of football stadiums.

 

Early synagogues

The first house of worship built expressly as a synagogue was established in the Orczy House in 1796. It was in the expanded Orczy House that the precursor of the reform movement that came to be known as the first reformed community of Budapest, the Chesed Neurim Society (Piety of Youth), was accomodated. This association was founded in the 1820s with the goal of renewing ceremonies. They followed the Viennese model, sermons were in high German rather than in Yiddish, and there was a musical accompaniment that was influenced by Christian church music. A polyphonic choir was established, a far cry from traditional individual prayer. Within a few years, the community introduced separate services for women. Since the controversy with Orthodox Jews had yet to intensify, the Jewish Community of Pest accepted the reformist association, they were allowed to build their synagogue next to the Orthodox shul, in the Orczy House. Contemporaries nicknamed the two synagogues as "the silent synagogue" and the "loud synagogue". The Orthodox was filled with the mumbling of worshippers praying individually-which outsiders identified as noise-while worshippers listened silently to choral prayers in the congregation of the Reformed synagogue. That congregation provided the base for the Neolog temple in Dohány Street in 1859. The Orczy House was demolished in 1936 for the sake of an aggressively bold city development plan: this was to be the starting point of a new avenue (Erzsébet sugárút) leading to the Városliget, the City Park. What we actually find there today is a dead-end.


The Dohány Temple

By the 1850s, there were some twenty thousand Jews in the city. The variations of religious life were embodied in different congregations and synagogues, with no rift between the Orthodox and
reformed groups. There were plans for the construction of a synagogue in Dohány Street and a school building in Síp Street, and the community decided to create the new synagogue in the spirit of reform. With seating for three thousand people, the new synagogue-a Neolog temple-was to be the largest of its kind in Europe. Three architects were invited to submit plans: József Hild, Frigyes Feszl (who was later to design the Redoute but was not yet well known at the time) and his two associates, as well as the Vienna architect Ludwig Förster. The latter thought that what would be the most fitting would be the Orientalising style of synagogues and mosques built after the destruction of the Second Temple. A radical historicist, Förster went so far as to proclaim that "at least in its main features, the Israelite synagogue should reflect the hallowed ideal of every synagogue, Solomon's Temple." Accordingly, the proportions of the interior followed the Biblical description. Yet the Dohány Street synagogue ended up recalling the characteristic forms of Christian churches more strongly and thus became a vehicle of the idea of Hungarian-Jewish brotherhood as well as embodying the symbolism of the reform movement. The two towers and the rose windows of the façade are formal elements pertaining to Christian architecture. The tympan of the crown cornice reads: "And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them" (Exodus: 25,8). In its centenary year, the Dohány Temple stood in urgent need of restoration, yet the decision-making process was much too slow. Finally, in the 1980s and '90s, a donation from the Emmanuel Foundation (named after the father of Tony Curtis, the Hollywood star of Hungarian extraction), covering fifty per cent of the restoration costs, was matched by the Hungarian state. Today, the synagogue is once again as packed on major Jewish holidays as it used to be in the olden days.

 

The Rumbach Sebestyén Street Synagogue

This synagogue, once known to the Jews of Pest as "the Rombach," is a major building (and his first commission abroad) of the great Viennese architect Otto Wagner, one of the founders of the Viennese Sezession and a pioneer of early modernism. Although ninety percent of the renovation work is done, the synagogue remains closed, an empty, orphaned monument.
Following the 1867 Compromise between Austria and Hungary, the basic law regulating citizens' rights-active and passive voting rights-throughout the Empire granted Jews equal legal status. The uniquely dynamic cultural and economic development that began after the Compromise was to a significant degree powered by Jewish bankers, industrialists, and intellectuals. The status quo community succeeded in building a synagogue of such proportions (the interior spans 24.8 meters and reaches a height of 28.15 meters) through donations from members of the congregation.
It was against this backdrop of social change that the General Jewish Congress of 1868-69 was convened. After its wide-ranging reforms were accepted, Hungarian Jewry split into three different organisations: the Neologs, accepting the reforms of the Congress; the strictly observant Orthodox; and the status quo ante congregation of those who wished to abide by the pre-Congress situation. Although the splendid and just then completed Dohány Street synagogue remained open to all Jews, Orthodox and status quo ante Jews did not recognise the Dohány Temple as their own.
The Rombach synagogue also adopted elements of an Orientalising-Moorish style but, unlike the Dohány Street building, its front is integrated into a tenement row. The octagonal central space, covered with a dome, adjoins the front in a rather loose fashion through one of its segments. By virtue of their octagonal shape, the minaret-like towers of the Rombach synagogue harmonise with this central octogon. The status quo synagogue also features towers, even though the use of this Christian feature in the Dohány Street synagogue elicited criticism. One explanation for the change in taste might be the immigration of numerous Eastern Jewish refugees at the time, though the process met with much intolerance. As against this, noted artists of the time saw the East through the romantic gold-rimmed spectacles of a rising Sun.
The Oriental effects are reinforced by the arcaded portal at the ground level, as well as by a series of arched, parapeted windows of arabesque design, which vertically connect the two levels. These are accentuated and horizontally divided by rows of red brick, running the entire length of the street front, as well as by the stalactite work of the cornice on the gable and above the ground level. The protruding central section, which encompasses the arcaded triple portal, is the dominant feature of the ground level.
The octagonal central space is surrounded on seven sides by a gallery. The eighth side opens into a rectangular space, where the Holy Ark stands on a mizrahi estrade. With its painted beams, the coffered ceiling looks like a paper fan of Oriental design. The walls, the gallery and the arcades are lavishly painted in blue, red and gold. No Jewish symbol other than the Star of David is employed either internally or externally.
Exactly seventy years after the inauguration of the Rombach synagogue, as early as in August 1941, 18,000 Jews of "unclear citizenship", namely refugees from countries outside Hungary's borders were deported by Hungary to the Ukraine and murdered by the Germans in Kamenets-Podolsk. "One of the temporary internment camps was at this location," as we read on a plaque placed recently next to the gate.
After the Holocaust, it was still possible to worship in the Rombach synagogue. In 1959, however, the congregation, seriously diminished in number, stopped using it.
As a consequence, the decay of the building accelerated. After the roof collapsed in 1979, the debris and the once splendid furnishings were removed. At that point, the congregation sold the building. Restoration started in the late eighties and progressed quickly. It was mooted that the building could serve secular purposes as a stock exchange. Media pressure and public opinion forced the owners-who later had to declare bankruptcy-to abandon this plan. In 2003, the property reverted to the Jewish community, yet no decision has been made as to its future use. In the summer of 2004, Rabbi Slómó Köves re-established the status quo ante congregation.

 

The Orthodox synagogue in Kazinczy Street

This synagogue was built four decades after "the Rombach", in 1912-13. Fifty years after the construction of the Dohány Temple, the one in Kazinczy Street was built in opposition to the reformed practices of the latter. The strictly traditionalist Orthodox Jewish congregation of Budapest wanted to meet the challenge posed by the representative buildings of the Neolog and the status quo ante community. The 1909 architectural competition called for designs for a multifunctional building complex for the religious congregation, including a synagogue, a central office, a kindergarten, a school, and a kitchen with a dining hall. The central office of the community, in the Dob Street wing of the complex, was the first to be completed.
In the second stage of construction (1913), the architects Béla and Sándor Löffler made a virtue out of the short-comings of the location and thus achieved the characteristic medieval Oriental atmosphere of the Kazinczy Street synagogue as we know it. The building turns towards both Wesselényi and Dohány Streets, thereby almost creating the impression that the street ends with the synagogue. In spite of the constraints, it thus manages to look imposing. Creating a sense of organic growth, the insertion of this building is an urban architectural reflection of the traditionalism of the community which commissioned it. A harmonious combination of tradition and innovation is achieved through the alternation between moderate ornamentation and large empty surfaces.
A few years after the famous radical doctrine of the Viennese Adolf Loos-"ornament is crime"-a mature synthesis was realised in Budapest: ornamental Sezession. Made of wrought iron, bronze and glass, the coffered portal on the front is decorated with a geometric design. The few stairs that lead up to it are flanked in a protective manner by two terraced wings. With its arched middle section and two side entrances with rectangular frames, the triple portal changes into a high pedestal. Even the stone divisions of the windows are carved, with the design extended to the brickwork in the form of two tree-of-life motifs. Placed above the two rows of windows along the axis of the portal and the stone tablets, there is a small rose window decorated with tracery in the shape of a Star of David. The frontage, which is covered with brick, comes complete with an ornamental battlement with two ledges, reminiscent of Mesopotamian architecture. Its floral ornamentation, intertwined with Hebrew letters, recalls the portal of the Budapest Workshop, was founded by Lajos Kozma in 1913 and modelled on the Wiener Werkstätte (3 Vécsey Street). Built of reinforced concrete, the synagogue is arranged into a nave flanked by two aisles in the inside. Despite its wire-lattice walls, the monolithic interior radiates power. Along the eastern wall between the galleries (they are more like the balconies of a theatre), we find the Holy Arc on the monumental mizrahi estrade. Rather than the area around the Holy Ark, it was the bimah at the centre of the synagogue that formed the dominant element of the Orthodox sacral buildings in the old days. In this case the Arc of the Covenant is expanded into an inside façade. The metallic lustre painting of Zsolnay ceramics, which ring the enormous marble pillars of Jachin and Boaz, is a reference to the original ones in bronze. As we move towards the middle, we come across the architectonic Oriental thrones of the cantor and the rabbi. Above us we see a "backdrop" reminiscent of a battlement. The Oriental wall painting around puts in mind modern carpet design: the motifs of the menorah and the Star of David are arranged in a chess-board pattern.
Tradition requires that the bimah, the five-step platform for the lectern, is placed at the geometric centre of the architectural space. Imposing candelabra made of bronze stand on the corners of the platform. The furnishings, and especially the lectern, are of first-class craftsmanship. The ornamentation combines the Sun motifs of a Transylvanian hope-chest, and the Star of David. Running along three sides, a two-level gallery was built for women, who accessed it through flights of stairs at all four corners of the building. An Oriental-style filigree of woodwork separated the women on the gallery from the central space.
A decade-long renovation of the synagogue's interior is near completion.

 

The Gozsdu Court and the Romanian Orthodox chapel in Holló Street

The arcades of the Inner Erzsébetváros are characteristic of the district. The largest arcades link Dob Street with Király Street. The narrowness of these plots can be traced back to the strips of land owned by the citizens of Pest which lay outside the city walls and were used for growing vegetables. With the urban explosion, the richest among those moving into the city bought streetfront property, while those of more modest resources bought property further inside and opened shops and workshops there. In daytime, the courts functioned as public areas, with workshops, small factories, shops and storage areas in the ancillary buildings. The mixed status of the arcades corresponded to the practice of "circumventing but observing" the strict rules of Jewish rites and customs. For example, observant Jews are not allowed to step into the streets on holidays, but those moving through the interlinked courtyards felt satisfied that they respected this law.
The most strikingly original arcade, which has few peers anywhere in Europe, was built in 1903, however, not by Jews but by a foundation set up by Emanuil (Manó) Gozsdu (1820-1870), a Romanian writer and lawyer. The architect, Gyoýzoý Cziegler, linked two narrow plots with a row of interconnected gate-houses built upon them. The resultant six courtyards connecting 13 Király Street and 16 Dob Street are complemented by three atriums. With each courtyard measuring 15 meters in width and 10-20 meters in depth, the entire complex is no less than 230 meters long.
Emanuil Gozsdu, the donor, was born in Nagyvárad (Oradea) in Transylvania. After studying in Pest and Pozsony (Bratislava/Pressburg), he ran a very successful law office in Budapest. Inspired by the spirit of the Hungarian Reform Age, in 1826 he arranged for the Hungarian-language publication of the liturgical books of the Romanian Orthodox Church. In 1860, he entered Parliament as the member for Krassó County, and in 1866 he was appointed a Justice in the Supreme Court.
He bequeathed his considerable fortune to "Romanian youth who are eager to study," that is, to a foundation set up for the advancement of the education of young ethnic Romanians in Hungary. By the end of 1918, the endowment of the foundation, which stood under the patronage of the Orthodox National Congress of Transylvania, and later of the Orthodox Province of Transylvania, exceeded ten million golden crowns. By 1918, approximately five thousand students had received scholarships from the rental incomes of the seven four-storey tenements of the Gozsdu Court. In 1938, the Hungarian and the Romanian governments reached an agreement about the transfer of the property to Romanian ownership, but the war and the forced liquidation of the foundation in 1952 prevented this agreement from being put into effect. In 1998, the Romanian Orthodox Patriarchate re-registered the Gozsdu Foundation in order to halt attempts by the local council of Budapest's 7th District to arrange for the sale of the Gozsdu Court and other buildings in its environs, all to be demolished for the sake of a projected Madách Promenade. By the time the move went through, most of the tenants had been forcibly evicted from their shops and homes. The Council then proceeded to sell the entire complex to the Hungarian Real Estate Corporation (Magyar Ingatlan Kft.), which plans to invest 12.5 billion forints in luxury apartments and various entertainment facilities to be developed at this location. Even though there are international agreements precluding the transfer of the property to the new owner, demolition has already begun. When activists committed to urban protection realised the sheer scale of the destruction, unleashed ostensibly for the sake of a promenade, they set up an organisation called Óvás! (the word means both "veto" and "protection"). Their goal is to achieve a revitalisation of the old Jewish quarter of Pest, declared a World Heritage site in June 2002, in keeping with the traditions of the area.
The one-storey Late Classicist building built by József Hild for Sámuel Králik in 1850 (8 Holló Street) was saved thanks in part to their intervention. This building was linked to the Gozsdu Court by an arcade and, from 1914, it housed the chapel of the Budapest Romanian Orthodox Parish, with the priest's accomodation next door.
The opposite side of Holló Street was demolished in 2003; the year 2004, with protests of no avail, saw the demolition of the Silversmith's House in 11 Holló Street, designed by the architects Novák and Goth (1909), where the Hungarian Jewish Cultural Union (MAZSIKE) was housed.
Recently, bombarded by protests and petitions, local council authorities have seemed to abandon their projects. Some sixty houses within the district have come under protection orders. There are also plans of protecting the half-demolished building adjacent to the Gozsdu Court (12 Holló Street). Another neighbouring building, 4 Holló Street, was also built in the Classicist style around 1840. Since 1891 it housed the Israelite Boys' Orphanage of Pest. The great Orientalist Ignác Goldziher, for thirty years the secretary of the Neolog Jewish community of Pest, lived there. After his death, his home was supposed to be the location of the Hungarian Jewish Museum, which was to be based on his private library.
Gozsdu Court and its sorroundings epitomise the co-existence of multiple cultures in Budapest.

 

György Szegő
is Editor of Új Építőművészet, an architectural bi-monthly.