Fasor Reformed church (Fasori reformatus templom), Budapest

The Avenue (Fasor) Reformed church and parish on the avenue leading to the City Park (Városliget) is a masterpiece of the first order among the secession buildings by Aladár Árkay which remain. Built between 1911 and 1913, its stained glass windows were made by Miksa Róth.

Aladár Árkay, like Ödön Lechner, planned everything himself, from the lighting and the stained glass windows to the patterns on the walls and the pews. Thus a single master moulded the many influences meeting in this particular building into a wonderful and unique composition.

The church and its monumental tower is striking even at a distance. Its facade is a single walled surface with porthole windows, and is dominated by the entrance. The wall above it has notedly secessionist and Hungarian ceramic ornamentation, above which there is an enormous semicircular arched, glazed window. On the south-western side is a smaller, simpler cylindrical tower.

The layout of the church is an even cross with a high cupola at the centre. In important interior locations the floral ornamentation and the ceramic tiles typical of secession reoccur on the otherwise white walls. The strongly stylised patterns break down into geometric elements that preserve their folklore roots. The same is true of the carved wooden furnishings. Their massiveness evokes the world of hand-crafted vernacular furniture, while the particular pomp of the black and golden surface carries the marks of Viennese secession.

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Budapest travel, Budapest sights, Budapest, Hungary sights