Szegő Dóra - Szegő György: Synagogues - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2004)

The Synagogue in Frankel Leó út

The rear, Danube-side, facade of the seven-storey building is decorated with the stone tablet, star of David and menorah motifs. The closure of the Eastern wall with the Ark, and a stained-glass lancet window, imitates patterns of French Gothic churches. From the Frankel Leó utca side, the temple is blocked out by the residential building. The headquarters—which used to house, among others, the Jewish boy-scout unit named for the great Hungarian poet Mihály Vörösmarty—was once bustling with municipal activity. Beneath the headquarters are arcades with three openings that frame an iron gate each, leading to the lobby of the temple. The main entrance and the gates to the women’s galleries in the two aisles open from a common terrace raised a few steps above ground level. Over the gabled roof of the lobby is a stone-framed lancet window. The facade has two buttresses in the middle. The pointed order of arches includes a window divided in the shape of the tablets of the law and featuring a star of David. The stone frame of the window is a keel arch with bead mouldings and flamboyant crockets. The rows of lancet windows on the two sides were designed by Miksa Róth.

The shape of the window arches outside is repeated inside on the vaults. The blue,

■ The synagogue in Frankel Leó út. the portico

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