Prakfalvi Endre: Roman Catholic Churches in Unified Budapest - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2003)

The Church of St. Elizabeth of the House of Árpád, 1901

■ Deiign hor the raette by Mik&a Roth, 1898

Romanesque church ending in a semi-circular apse and featuring a turret on its faqade is now used by a Greek Catholic parish. Worthy of note are the stained- glass windows of the building, as are the murals by Ede Kratzmann and Béla Kontuly. The Annunciation and the La&t Supper on the wings of the royal door of the iconostasis are the works of Ferenc Lohr and Ignác Roskovics respectively.)

The foundation stone of St. Elizabeth's Church was laid, according to an account in the journal építő Ipar (Construction Industry, 1896), "after the enactment of ceremonies with great ecclesiastical pomp and circumstance by His Majesty [Francis Joseph] himself, who struck the stone with a hammer three times." With reference to the layout and the architectural details (the buttresses and the square ridge turret above the intersection of the transept and the nave), the report describes the building as early Gothic in style. The superstructure is related to a German-style arrangement of nave and aisle (these are of the same height and are lit through the windows of the aisles), but the building as a whole is of a unique style. By placing the 76-metre tall western twin towers on the sides, the architect created a monumental three-portalled faqade.

The church, which rests upon a concrete foundation three metres thick at points, is allocated a place in the history of art by Ferenc Vadas. Following his- toricist precepts, Vadas says, the designer "sought to achieve layouts, spatial arrangement and mass distribution which refer to the titular saint as well as invoking the period-style of the saintly patron."

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