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

The Chapel of Hungary's Saints, 1996

■ Church interior, facing ea&t

the depths of the catacombs and the churches of the first Christians all the way to the year 2000", ideals embracing the historical and artistic traditions accumulated in two thousand years of service rendered by the Church.

While the work of construction was underway, the community of saints was joined by yet another Hungarian. In 1997, Pope John Paul II beatified Baron Vilmos Apor, Bishop of Győr, who had been killed by Soviet arms and died a martyr's death while trying to protect the innocent in 1945.

Completed in 1996, the church has a complex structure, as it is composed of the base forms of a curved triangle and a circle. The 14 Stations of the Cross taking Christ to Golgotha for the curved encircling walls are currently being carved by sculptor Róbert Csikszentmihályi. The chapel has a centralised sacral space oriented to the east. Standing before the golden background of a stele in the apse, the crucifix is the work of László Somogyi-Soma.

In architectural history, a martyrium is a building, usually centralised, and raised in honour of a martyr or saint, often displaying features of historicism. Today the architect can afford looser interpretations and freer associations— both in time and space. Indications of two millennia of Christian architecture in evidence here include the step-and-ring base of the dome, possibly prefig75