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

The Jewish Cemeteries at the Turn of the 20th Century

■ Héla Lajta: the mauioleum of Sándor Schmidt

At least six of the mural vaults in the Kozma utca Cemetery were designed by Béla Lajta. The powerful, monumental-looking haystack dome is a feature dominating the Gries family mausoleum made in 1906-07. The structure's external pyrogranite cover has been destroyed and its gate has disappeared, but the mosaics of the interior rich in religious symbols representing lions, birds, celestial bodies, and palms can still be seen. Standing nearby, the richly coloured Schmidl Mausoleum is another of Lajta's designs with a haystack cross-section. One of the artist’s best-known works, the mausoleum was believed to have been jointly made with Ödön Lechner, but recent research has found the work to be Lajta's individual creation, notwithstanding Lechner's undeniable spiritual influence. The haystack arch, which is one of the most characteristic features of Lajta's early works, made its first appearance in 1901, on Lajta's designs entered for the tender competition invited for the Kossuth Mausoleum, and then in 1903, on plans for some arcaded vaults meant for the Kozma utca Cemetery. These plans fell through, but the motif is

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