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

The Chapel of Christ the King, 19126

The wide ogival main door on the front with its orders of arches features the motif of "several doves flying inside, which represents the soul aspiring to be with God”. The 105-kilogram bell was cast by László Szlezák in 1926, while the organ was built by the Angszter company of Pécs. The flooring of the church is the work of Péter Melocco’s company.

The nave was painted over after the war, and so were the decorative images (now visible in traces only), painted Art Deco symbols from the Loreto litany pleading for the intervention of the Virgin Mary ("ivory tower, the heart of wisdom”, etc.) together with the quotations meant to direct the thoughts of the faithful to God, as for example the one reading, Locus iste vere non est aliud, nisi domus Dei et porta coeli (This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven, Gen. 28.17.)

On the cellar wall there are the coats-of-arms of the counties detached from Hungary in 1920. The now destroyed stained-glass windows were made to designs by György Leszkovszky. The figurái replacements in evidence today were made by János Szilágyi. In the painting of the triumphal arch, which also perished in the war, there was János Stein’s work depicting Mary Patroness of Hungary the Blessed Virgin adored by the great of Hungary’s history from King St. Stephen 1 to Ferenc Rákóczi 11. "We have deserved, our Lord, that our glory be taken away in hard times,” declared the prince in his prayer to the Almighty.

The mosaic on the vaulting of the chancel is the work of Sándor Nagy and shows an angel offering the crown to an enthroned Christ. The mosaic was set in a Murano workshop. The cement-marble murals decorating the two sides of the chancel are the work of Oktáv Smigelschi. Made to the order of the honorary bishop and historian Vilmos Fraknói, one of the pictures depicts the piety of Ferenc Rákóczi, the other the visit of St. Imre to the monastery of Pannonhalma. The chapel was consecrated by Cardinal Csernoch on 31 October 1926. On the orders of Pope Pius IX, the worldwide Church celebrated the feast of the titulary for the first time, which is what the inscription of the chancel commemorates. HAEC ECCLESIA IN HONOREM CHRISTI REGIS FESTŐ EIUSDEM PRIMUM CELEBRATO CONSECRATA EST JOANNE CARD. CSERNOCH PrINC. PRIM. HUNG. XXXI OCT. MCMXXVI. (This church was consecrated on 31 October 1926 by Cardinal János Csernoch, Prince Primate of Hungary, on the festive day established to honour Christ the King.)

The glockenspiel in the tower was made for the World Eucharistic Congress in 1938. The melody is produced by tuned steel rods. The statues of the Hungarian saints in the procession were designed by Sándor Gecső and carved in wood by Béla Szép. Restored in the year 2000, the glockenspiel can be seen and heard playing on Sundays.

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