Csernus Lukács - Triff Zsigmond: The Cemeteries of Budapest - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1999)

Birds guarding the Sváb monument (Béla Lajta)

chitecture of 20th century cemeteries. The gatehouse with its caretaker’s quarters resembles the tower of a medieval castle, while the ceremonial hall, of which only the outside walls remain today, is evocative of eastern architectural prototypes from ancient Mesopotamia. At least forty tombstones and vaults designed by Lajta can be found in the two cemeteries mentioned above, and his style was imitated by several architects. Almost each and every one of his works is an attempt at mixing the emblems used in Jewish and Hungarian folklore in an effort to open new perspectives for modern sepulchral art.

Along the stone wall separating the Salgótarjáni út Cemetery from its neighbouring public cemetery, lie buried Manfréd Weiss, a member of the Upper House and an influential figure in the development of Hungarian industry; Adolf Ulmann, managing director of the Hungarian General Credit Bank, an institution controlling the country’s industrial development; Goldberger, the textile factory owner, and members of the Hatuany-Deutsch family, who were also renowned patrons of the arts. Bringing up the rear of these captains of industry, whose work contributed to raising Hungarian industrial standards to international levels, is Lipót Aschner, managing director of the United Light- bulb Factory, who died in 1952.

Among the several statesmen who represented the interests of the Jews in Hungarian politics buried behind the funeral parlour of rest are Pál Sándor, a liberal member of parliament; Vilmos Vázsonyi, lawyer and minister of justice, whose tombstone is the work of Géza Maróti; Bernát Friedmann, lawyer, one of the defence team in the Tisza33