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

The Parish Church of the Holy Family, 1917

Hauszmann, whom he assisted on construction projects around the Buda Royal Palace at the turn of the century—looked to the church belonging to the Loreto Abbey institute of the young women's teaching order in Rathfarham, Ireland, for his model of arranging the church and its auxiliary buildings. The idea originated from a wish expressed by Mother Superior Mater Mária Almásy, who made her decision after visiting the order's provinces in turn. Originally, the cloister designed for the left and the boarding school and school of economics meant to stand on the right were to have been connected to the church by way of the oratory, behind which, in the third wing of the complex, another school was envisaged. (The cloister that was in fact built later was the work of master builder Lipót Hável.) The foundation stone was laid on 26 January 1913, the feast of the Holy Family, and the ceremony celebrating the conclusion of the brickwork was held on 1 October the same year.

Arranged with a Greek-cross groundplan and flanked by two stair turrets, the building has a heavy, fifty-metre tall belfry in the middle of its facade and is closed with a semi-circular apse. The fronts of the Historicist building display a combination of brick, stone and mortar surfaces. The Pentecostal dove appears on the skylight of the original pendentive dome on the octagonal crossing.

With construction work slowed down by the First World War, the consecration ceremony, conducted by Cardinal and Prince Primate János Csernoch, was not held until 17 May 1917, Ascension Day.

According to a contemporary assessment, thanks to the "modernised Romanesque style” a fine spatial effect was achieved, and the architect "dispensed with all unnecessary embellishment and vain fancy-work to concentrate on the choice of material and the rhythmic disposition of mass”.

The pride of the church, a large mosaic depicting the Holy Family (1916), was set by Imre Zsellér in the style of Dezső Kölber of the 19th century Benedictine school of painting in Beuron. The glorified Saviour, who has descended to the world of men as a family member, is surrounded by St. Joseph, the Virgin Mary, Anna and Joachim. In the foreground are three angels holding a ribbon inscribed with the words Faith, Hope and Charity.

The old sacramental altar set up in the apse for the permanent safekeeping of the Eucharist was designed by the Italian Del Amico. The altar holds the relics of SS Prudentius and Castus. The wise virgins and the relief on the antependium showing the entombment of Christ were made by Viktor Vass. The relief of the lunette is also his work. The two statues carved into Carrara marble behind the entrance and representing St. Anthony of Padua and the Apostle Judas

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