Prakfalvi Endre: Roman Catholic Churches in Unified Budapest - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2003)
the major representatives of Hungarian Art Nouveau from the turn of the century, the modernist and conservative trends of the inter-war period and then the various experiments of a new phase of Modernism given a second chance after a long hiatus. Some technical terms used in architecture and art history but possibly striking the non-specialist reader as unfamiliar are explained at the end of the volume. The Church of the Virgin Mary, also known as the Coronation Church or Matthias Church, is not included as a separate item, even though the building received its present form displaying neo-Gothic attributes as a result of reconstruction in 1873-96 by Frigyes Schulek (1841—1919). The dual intentions of the architect were to restore the church to its 15th-century form and to make both the external and internal decorative artwork represent the historical and legendary events and figures characterising the mutuality between nation and Christianity in the 1000-year history of Hungary. And yet the church is primarily regarded as an outstanding achievement of Hungary's architecture of the Middle Ages. A decades-long process of liturgical reform reached its culmination with the Second Vatican Council (Sacro&anctum Concilium, 1962-65), which decreed that no stylistic preferences apply with regard to church architecture. The Council called for a noble simplicity of construction (con&tructio) within the framework of which God can be worshipped by His wandering people in a proper, dignified and active manner. The buildings as well as the objects used in the service should be dignified, ornamented and beautiful (dignae decorae ac pulchrae) and be the signs and symbols (óigna et iymbola) of a transcendental reality. The focal point of the church’s interior space is the altar, where the mass is celebrated "facing the congregation” at the "table of the last supper”. The altar, where the Eucharist manifests itself under the mysteries of the faith (myiterium Ijidei) is also the spread table of the Lord. (Earlier, the altar, the "altar of the Eucharist”, stood before the wall of the apse.) The change which turned the altar towards the congregation and brought it closer to its members gave another impetus to existing trends of design whereby the interior of the church was focused on one central point (even though the hierarchical organisation of the community assembling for the mass would be better served by a nave-and-aisles pattern). The longitudinal design of church buildings translates the entire body of the ecclesiastical community consisting of trunk and limbs into the language of architecture, whereas the centralised interior stresses the importance of the individual participating in the liturgy. 7
