Gyergyádesz László, ifj.: Kecskemét és a magyar zsidó képzőművészet a 20. század első felében (Kecskemét, 2014)
Jegyzetek
cember 1966, and renovated the building by the plans of József Kerényi architect and Lajos Ud- vardi interior designer according to its new function between 1970 and 1974. The former spoke of the architectural solutions (while conserving the exterior, the interior space was adapted to the new functions) used for the first time in the case of a synagogue in Hungary as follows: “The inner space of the synagogue was a large lecture hall [...] In order to conserve the building we had to divide the space. The atmosphere of the old space is preserved by the galleried parvis, however few know that the building symbolically conserved its old unity: my friend, Gyula Letanóczkl structural engineer ‘replaced’ the roofing with two longitudinal lattice structures so the ‘small house’ built in the ‘big house’ can be taken down anytime. We kept the cast-iron columns of the galleries of the synagogue in the parvis and renovated the arched dome.” The coloured lead-glass windows were finished in 1979 which were the works of the painter Ferenc Bolmányi who came from a provincial Hungarian Jewish family and fortunately survived the years of forced-labour service. At the initiation ceremony the solo cantata titled Orbls pictus (Op. 159) of the composer Sándor Szokolay was played especially composed for this occasion. A unique attraction of the House of Science and Technology is the Michelangelo Gallery. There are fifteen authentical plaster casts of the sculptures of Michelangelo Buonarotti (e.g. Madonna of Bruges, The Dying Slave, Moses). The more than one-hundred-year-old copies got to Kecskemét in consignation from the Fine Art Museum of Budapest in 1976 thanks to the restorer work and the recommendation of the sculptor Miklós Melocco. The setting of the Pietá provides the visitors with an exciting visual experience since in contrast to the original one this can be looked at from above. “1868 is the year of scission when the Hungarian Jewish religious life disintegrated into different parts still the community in Kecskemét was only divided much later into neologs and orthodoxs. The orthodox fellowship in Kecskemét marked out from the community in 1917, and became the Autonomous Orthodox Religious Community whose constitution was subscribed by its president Izidor Kecskeméti on the 31st March 1918. The constitution stated that the institutions of the community the synagogue and its ritualistic appointments should correspond with the accepted rules of Áruch Sulchan.” Quite surprisingly in the same year they bought the restaurant of István Loth not far from the theatre (“Eating and Dancing Place to Pista”) built in 1890, and they turned it into an orthodox synagogue. According to the above mentioned regulations they created a building without a tower, but with ferroconcrete women's gallery (with high trellises) on three sides of the tetragonal space and a wooden-made bi- mah in the middle and an Ark of the Covenant on the eastern side. Luckily the mural paintings between the ceiling brackets of the galleries and the roof can still be seen today The depictions of animals and the Hebrew inscriptions refer to the parables of the Talmud and the Sayings of the Fathers: “Be strong as the panther be light as the eagle, fast as the stag and hero as the lion in order to fulfil your Father’s wish.” Unfortunately from 1944 the orthodox synagogue also became abandoned, although for a shorter period of time people gathered there on Friday evenings still the number of the members of the community had seriously decreased by the 1950s. Basically people only started paying attention to the building already in bad conditions after it had been declared historic monument. After many ideas and plans in November 1991 the Hungarian Photographic Museum was placed in the building. It was exemplary how the town consciously tried to preserve as many characteristic features of the old synagogue as they could on the basis of the plans of the architect Pál Boros and the interior designer Ervin Vass-Eysen during the renovation and reconstruction. Hungarian Jewish architects and the secessionist architecture in Kecskemét at the turn of the century Kecskemét belonged to those cities where the urbanization was not completed and perfected during the upturn in the economy after the Compromise of 1867, but around the millennium and the following years, therefore, the townscape was mainly not characterized by the Historicism and the Eclecticism, but was defined by the architectural tendencies of the Secessionism. As a result, the particular architectural composition of the main square in Kecskemét has been considered to be a unique phenomenon in many respects in Hungary after the Treaty of Trianon since the nearest analogues (Szabadka, Marosvásárhely, Nagyvárad) today can be found over the frontier. Elek Kada the mayor of Kecskemét in the golden era of the town summarized the achievements as 42
