Tóth Vilmos: Funeral Art - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2006)

Kerepesi út Cemetery at the Turn of the 20th Century

with the group of sepulchres inside them (K 18-19). With each articulated by a colonnade towards the main walkway and each connecting a pair of domed halls on either end, the two structures contain about two hundred funeral vaults altogether. This important specimen of a specific type of sepulchral arcade, which began in Italy and spread to the whole of Europe, is its designer Lajos Gerle’s chef-d'oeuvre. The four domes are decorated inside with mosaics made by Miksa Róth to designs by four artists: Andor Dudits (The Mourning oj) Chriit), Zsigmond Vajda (Mary and the Apostles). Aladár Körösfői Kriesch (The Resurrection ofj Christ) and János Stein (The Last Judgement). The differences among the four artists’ styles are clearly visible on the four works: for example, Stein's mosaic shows the unmistakable influence of his master Károly Lotz, whereas Aladár Körösfői Kriesch's work displays marks of the age’s decorative tendencies and the artist’s experiences in Kalotaszeg.

One of the best-known specimens of the period’s funeral sculpture can be found at a distance from the main passageway on the front of the right-hand side arcades that has no columns: unveiled in 1907, the vaulted family tomb of László Tóth can be regarded as an emblem of Hungary’s Art Nouveau funereal art. The architectural structure, which is dominated by that characteristic feature of turn-of-the century motif - the haystack-vault - was designed

■ Lajos Gerle: the arcaded vaults in the Kerepesi út Cemetery

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