Matits Ferenc: Protestant Churches - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2003)

enlarged in the 18th century. The Lutheran church in Deák tér was consecrated in 1811, and the Lutheran church of Buda, which used to stand in Dísz tér, was built around the middle of the 19th century. Another Lutheran church for the Slovakspeaking congregation of Pest was built in the mid-i86os in Rákóczi út to plans by Leopold Firtinger.

Its construction having begun in 1785, the church built for the Lutheran congregation of Óbuda is the oldest house of Protestant worship of Hungary’s capita], which was formed in 1873. That was followed by the church in Kálvin tér and then, in 1878 the Hold utca church of Pest's German-speaking Calvinist worshippers. Splitting off from the Kálvin tér mother congregation, one new congregation after the other was formed of the burgeoning Calvinist population of the capital city to begin its increasingly independent existence. The expansion was largely due to the incorporation of outlying settlements into Budapest on the one hand and the turn-of-the-century industrialisation and demographic explosion on the other.

Many of the families moving from Transylvania to Budapest in the years following the so-called Compromise between Austria and Hungary in 1867 were of the Unitarian faith. Sprouting from the soil of the Reformation, this denomination rejects the dogma of the Holy Trinity, which is why it came into collision with the Catholic and the Protestant churches alike. In Transylvania their community was led by Ferenc Dávid (c 1520—79). Their congregations survived in Transylvania from where they spread out in other directions. Their first church in Budapest, which also served as their episcopal see, was completed in 1890. Now they have three churches in the capital.

With the development of Budapest into a major city and the arrival here of refugees from the regions detached from Hungary after World War 1 there occurred a quantum leap in the number of Protestant worshippers soon rendering the capacity of the existing churches insufficient. Thus the municipal council of Budapest passed a decision, at the suggestion of Dean Imre Szabó, to imburse the annual sum of 125,000 pengő to help the Protestant Diocese of Budapest build new churches.

Although building sites tended to be donated by the municipality, the construction of Protestant churches was also a function of the given congregation's financial circumstances, its willingness to contribute, and the success of local fund-raising campaigns. It is important to mention that the construction of several Protestant churches in Budapest was greatly facilitated by contributions coming from sister churches in the Netherlands. In the 20th century, the building