Tóth Vilmos: Funeral Art - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2006)
Funeral Arts in the 19th Century
another representative piece of the Historicist period in funereal art (K wall). Also raised before 1874, in the Víziváros Civilian Cemetery, was one of Imre Steindl’s first Neo-Gothic works, the Count Gyulais mausoleum, whose chapel-like interior was decorated with sculptures by Antonio dal Zotto and murals by Károly Jakobey. A major step towards raising Kerepesi út Cemetery to the status of a national burial site was the establishment of monuments commemorating the events and persons of 1848-49, most importantly the re-interment of Lajos Batthyány and the unveiling, in 1874, of the former Prime Minister’s mausoleum designed by Albert Schickedanz (K 11-12). The structure, which is more like a funeral vault than a mausoleum proper, was left unfinished according to the approved plans, and it was only partially completed during its most recent renovation a few years ago. Characteristically, it was the sculptural section that was scrapped in the course of the mausoleum's erection in the 1870s; later, when the Deák and the Kossuth monuments were built, that aspect too was already regarded indispensable. In any case, Schickedanz’s work was received unfavourably by many, and he was given no more commissions for any major funeral monument. Involved in the creation of his later works, such as the Szabóky Sepulchre (K 7), the now-symbolic Semmelweis Monuments (K 34/2), and the tombstone of Sándor Szilágyi (K 28), was Fülöp Herczog as co-designer. Completed in 1901, the Szilágyi tomb received the copy of a memorial plaque made by János Fadrusz. There are no tombs designed by Fadrusz in any of Budapest’s burial sites, except for works reused for funeral purposes; two of his famous statues of Christ can be found in Kerepesi út Cemetery, one above his own tomb (K 28), and another on the sepulchre of the Heinrich family (K 20). Planned in 1876 by Kálmán Gerster, Ferenc Deák’s mausoleum (K 28-29) was completed in 1886. There is every reason for the harmonious, well-balanced structure to be described as one of the most-significant funeral constructions made in the 19th century. The stone angel holding a wreath on the dome by György Kiss is no longer mere decoration-, it is an artwork equal in value to the architecture as a whole. Designed by Alajos Stróbl, Deák's sarcophagus in the centre of the interior was destroyed by a bomb in World War 11. (In its place stands an unadorned stone sarcophagus). Bertalan Székely’s murals decorating the interior were replaced in a few decades with mosaics put on the walls by Miksa Róth and made in the style of the original paintings. The Deák Mausoleum became the symbolic centre and its environment the most atmospheric and prestigious focus of Kerepesi út Cemetery for decades. '7
