Fabó Beáta - Gall, Anthony: I came from the East to a City of Great Palaces. Károly Kós, the early years 1907-1914 (Budapest, 2013)
Kós' First Steps as an Independent Architect
■ The church harmonises with the surroundings László Haris H Sketch design from 1908 Magyar Építészeti Múzeum H The completed church László Haris M The reconstructed facade decoration according to Kós' original design, Árpád Csóka 2007-2010 László Haris Jánszky formulated the task set to them as follows, ‘We kept the perfect three-aisle, Romanesque structure with the apsis at one end. The walls of the main aisles are held by two strong columns under expansive arches, but the ceiling reflects a new system - double timber beams carry a flat roof of gypsum, with coloured skylights cut into it. There are large, virtually undivided surfaces everywhere, which lend themselves to be covered by modern decorative paintings. The other innovations are clearly formal in nature - we only wanted to use practical innovations in the structure of the building. The financial constraints led us to invent new solutions in terms of materials and form. We, architects Béla Jánszky and Károly Kósch (at this time Kós still used the Saxon spelling of his family name -ed.) were commissioned to design the church. We were provided some 58 000 crowns for the construction work. The placing of the building posed difficulties: the single suitable building lot was set so deep in the terrain that we only accepted it out of necessity, for want of another lot. It was only natural in these circumstances that we were striving to build high, to rise at least above the railway station building in height. The fact that the lot is situated at the start of an ever widening valley gave us yet another reason to opt for a single-tower, assymmetric structure, so it fits better into its environment. As otherwise our financial means were meagre, our aim was to get the greatest possible volume rather than cheap external ornamentation - once we had no money for noble materials, we had no intention to forge the likeness of these either. This kind of forgery is a sin in any case, but even more so with the house of God. In general, we aimed for sincerity in the structure and the exterior of the building as Well 'Zajlónk, 1910. ‘... when in the summer the church was mostly completed, the finishing touches, i.e. the decoration, furnishings and fittings were carried out by Györgyi and Jánszky and I remained an everfaithful visitor to Zebegény. I was seriously considering that should I settle in Budapest - which seemed to be my only option with regard to my future as an architect - then I would purchase a small building lot here in Zebegény by the Danube, where I could build myself a weekend cottage, complete with a boathouse, of course.’KOS ,991:96~97 From the summer of 1909, when he paid a visit home, he broke up this intimate relationship with Zebegény. ‘Not once did I set foot in Zebegény again - not even for the opening ceremony of the church. I threw out everything and everybody that could as much as remind me of it.’KOS I99I: m-64
