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

The Kelenföld Competition and the Former Bocskai út Synagogue

■ The iron railing of the converted Bocikai út iynagogue

tial composition of modernism based on geometric shapes giving precedence to function over form.

The main entrance of the synagogue is accessible via stairs opening from a side street. The gateway consists of five slender vaults. True to the spirit of modernism, the angular mass of the reinforced concrete portal emphasises structure. The butt-edge of this mass is turned toward Bocskai út in the manner of an ancient Egyptian temple pylon. Up its entire height is a vertical window opening into the staircase of the women's gallery. The ornamentation of the window railing is a series of six pointed stars written one over the other. Above this are the tablets of the law. The entrances on the side front lead to the gallery, which is set on the Western side and positioned in a curiously theatre-like arrangement. A lobby and a cloakroom also joined this unit, but the lobby was also used as a smaller prayer-room. The temple interior was framed by large, unbroken and unadorned expanses of wall surface. Joining them in the middle was the blue- painted Eastern wall in the form of a monumental, stage-like box, with a circular window on either side. Within the box stood a travertine stone with horizontal stripes. Sunk in the stone block is the Ark in a red-marble frame. In front of the Ark on either side was a slender metal menorah and above it the tablets of the law. Overhead, too, was the organ built into a box with a row of five arcades. Together with the Bauhaus style, the presence of the organ bespeaks an ortho79