Churches, houses of worship, museums. This exhibition, which accompanies the Ferenczy Museum Centre’s Weekend of Open Churches in Szentendre, a series of events across the arts that is centred around places of worship in the town, offers insights into Szentendre’s rich traditions in the arts and diversity of religious groups.
CHURCH OF THE DORMITION OF THE THEOTOKOS (BELGRADE CATHEDRAL)
The cathedral of the Eparchy, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, is named after the Serbians who left Belgrade and its environs during the Great Serbian Emigration of 1690, and settled in the town. It is one of the largest Serbian Orthodox churches in Hungary. The church built at the end of the 17th century, during the time of Patriarch Arsenije Čarnojević III, was a simple, towerless building with a nave and a three-sided apse. The current building was raised on the site of the original cathedral, during the eparchy of Dionisije Novaković, and was completed by 1764, though the bell tower was not finished until 1777. The gates of the church fence are exceptional works of craftsmanship, and were created by a local master blacksmith, Márton Ginesser. The pictures of the iconostasis that dominates the interior were painted between 1777 and 1781 by Vasilije Ostojić, an icon painter from Novi Sad. The churchyard holds the graves of several prominent Serbian families of Szentendre and a memorial column dedicated to composer Tihamér Vujicsics.
POŽAREVAČKA CHURCH
Those who fled from around Požarevac, Serbia, built a church dedicated to St Michael the Archangel in 1690, first from wood, before raising the stone structure by 1759. The steeple was completed by 1794. Like many other churches in Szentendre, it has an east-facing sanctuary, in accordance with the rules of the Orthodox Church. The iconostasis, which follows 18th-century Balkan models, was made in 1742, with icons painted by Nedelko Popovich and Georgije Ranite, artists from Banat who worked in the traditional post-Byzantine style. The Seat of Wisdom in the nave was given its present form in the 19th century.
CHURCH OF THE DORMITION OF THE THEOTOKOS (BELGRADE CATHEDRAL)
The cathedral of the Eparchy, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, is named after the Serbians who left Belgrade and its environs during the Great Serbian Emigration of 1690, and settled in the town. It is one of the largest Serbian Orthodox churches in Hungary. The church built at the end of the 17th century, during the time of Patriarch Arsenije Čarnojević III, was a simple, towerless building with a nave and a three-sided apse. The current building was raised on the site of the original cathedral, during the eparchy of Dionisije Novaković, and was completed by 1764, though the bell tower was not finished until 1777. The gates of the church fence are exceptional works of craftsmanship, and were created by a local master blacksmith, Márton Ginesser. The pictures of the iconostasis that dominates the interior were painted between 1777 and 1781 by Vasilije Ostojić, an icon painter from Novi Sad. The churchyard holds the graves of several prominent Serbian families of Szentendre and a memorial column dedicated to composer Tihamér Vujicsics.
POŽAREVAČKA CHURCH
Those who fled from around Požarevac, Serbia, built a church dedicated to St Michael the Archangel in 1690, first from wood, before raising the stone structure by 1759. The steeple was completed by 1794. Like many other churches in Szentendre, it has an east-facing sanctuary, in accordance with the rules of the Orthodox Church. The iconostasis, which follows 18th-century Balkan models, was made in 1742, with icons painted by Nedelko Popovich and Georgije Ranite, artists from Banat who worked in the traditional post-Byzantine style. The Seat of Wisdom in the nave was given its present form in the 19th century.
BLAGOVESTENSKA CHURCH
The current church on Main Square (Fő tér) was preceded by a wooden structure built by monks who fled to Szentendre from the monastery in Krušedol (Srem Region) in 1690. For a time, it housed the relics of the saints of the Branković dynasty. The building that replaced it was designed by András Mayerhoffer and was built between 1752 and 1754. The patron saint of the church, which is one of the emblems of the town, is the Virgin Mary of the Annunciation. The building has an east-west axis, its style is a mix of baroque and rococo elements. Notable on its western façade is the entrance, with its lavish rococo stone carvings. Next to the southern entrance, there is a red marble funerary monument, with Greek inscriptions. Inside, the painted cartouches on the ceiling were made in the second half of the 18th century, while the rococo iconostasis was painted by Mihály Zsivkovics, an artist from Buda, between 1802 and 1804.
PREOBRAŽENSKA CHURCH
This baroque church was built between 1741 and 1746, on the site of a former wooden church, by immigrant craftsmen who dealt mostly in leather. According to the Serbian inscription of the marble plaque above the main entrance, the church was dedicated to the Transfiguration of the Lord. Only the high nave was completed by 1746, and the steeple was not built until 1778. Made in the mid-18th century, the iconostasis is the first example in the Serbian baroque style of the structure to reach up to the top of the chancel arch, completely separating the sanctuary from the nave. The icons were the work of Péter Csongrádi Rasics, a Serbian painter from Eger.
PARISH CHURCH OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST
The oldest church in Szentendre was originally dedicated to St Andrew, and became the eponym of the town itself. The church underwent four major reconstructions before it reached its current form. Following the Mongol invasion, a Romanesque church was built between 1241 and 1283, but was destroyed in 1294. It was rebuilt in the 14th century in the Gothic style; the current floor plan and steeple date back to this time. A buttress at the foot of the steeple bears a sundial, carved from a single stone in the 1300s. It is a unique relic of astronomy in Hungary. The southern façade bears two entrances, with gothic jambs. The frescos were painted between 1933 and 1938 by members of the Society of Szentendre Painters: József Bánáti Sverák, Henrik Heintz, Ernő Jeges, Béla Onódi and Lajos Pándy. Uniquely, the biblical scenes are set in the countryside around Szentendre.
CHURCH OF SAINTS PETER AND PAUL
The largest church in Szentendre was built in 1750 by Bulgarian and Serbian Orthodox refugees from Typrovac. Their previous wooden church was left standing and was dismantled only when the structure of the new place of worship had been completed. The bell tower was completed in 1753, and the congregation started to use the new church in 1791. It was consecrated to Saints Peter and Paul in 1796. The late baroque building has a floor area of 300 square metres, an internal height of 16 metres and a tower that is 32.54 metres high. The floor plan follows the tradition, and there is a red marble, late baroque ornamental gate on each of two of the façades. With Serbs leaving the town in large numbers, the church was unused from the early 20th century on, and its condition deteriorated. In 1938 the town council bought the building from the Serbian parish for use as a garrison church. In 1944 it was purchased by the Roman Catholic parish. A pendant cross, the work of Ádám Kisléghi Nagy, hung where the iconostasis used to stand, is a touching reference to the original, Orthodox past of the building. A new bell was inaugurated in 2022, on the Weekend of Open Churches in Szentendre.
CHURCH OF SAINT ANDREW, IZBÉG
What was originally a Serbian Orthodox church was built in 1738 to honour the Holy Spirit. It became the property of the Roman Catholic Church in 1948, and was reconsecrated by Cardinal József Mindszenty in the same year, after the church had been enlarged by the addition of a bay, a transept and an oratory. The baroque church has a floor area of 120 square metres and an east–west axis. It is surrounded by a stone wall. The tower is articulated by two sturdy, thick cornices. The windows have depressed arches; the entrance, the window of the choir and the mullioned windows of the staircase all have stone frames. The frescoes were painted in the 1950s by Ernő Jeges, one of the founding members of the Society of Szentendre Painters. The pews came from the Regnum Marianum parish church in Budapest, which was demolished in 1951, during the Rákosi era.
PROTESTANT CHURCH
The smallest of Szentendre’s Orthodox churches, the Opovachka, was built in 1746 by Serbs who had fled from Opovo. The tower, which was added in 1777, is 18 metres tall. The stone-framed gate underneath it still has the original, 18th-century leaves. In 1913, the Protestant Church bought the ruined Orthodox church, which had been unused for a century, from the bequest of István Jordán, a Pomaz merchant. The interior is 22.5 metres long and has 240 seats. The five-sided sanctuary has an irregular plan. The pews, the pulpit and the altar were made after 1913. The tower houses the oldest bell in the city. The 215 kg St Andrew bell used to be in the church on Templomdomb (Church Hill), which was where the Protestants purchased it. The Protestant church had been present in Szentendre since the early 17th century, and started to grow in the 1820s.
LUTHERAN CHURCH
The Lutheran church, built on the site of the former congregation house, was consecrated in August 2004. It was designed by Ybl Prize laureate architect József Kocsis, with Barnabás Kocsis, Gáspár Kocsis and Attila Kutasi. It has an east-facing sanctuary, the main entrance is accessible from the courtyard. The altar stone and the baptismal font are made of carved limestone, which proclaims the Word with the symbolic meaning of the motif of the empty cross. It is from the other bank of Bükkös Stream that the most attractive view of the church is accessible, with the courtyard, the delicate bell tower, which was constructed from two kinds of materials, and the volume of the church itself, which has a Romanesque simplicity, reflecting, according to the designer’s concept, the motto of the evangelists: ‘A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.’
BAPTIST HOUSE OF WORSHIP
The house of worship of the Szentendre Baptist Congregation was built between 1986 and 1988, to the design of Baptist architect Győző Csereklye. The prayer room, together with the choir, can seat about 150 people. A baptismal font was built under the pulpit, where believers who are converted and want to join the church are baptized according to their biblical beliefs. The basement holds the service rooms, where children’s, teen and youth groups meet regularly and parents with young children can watch the services on TV.
SZÁNTÓ JEWISH MEMORIAL AND HOUSE OF WORSHIP
In accordance with the will of his father, the descendant of timber merchants, György Szántó’s son fashioned a house of worship and a Holocaust museum in his parents’ former home. The former is the world’s smallest functioning synagogue, while the latter presents an exhibition on the life of Jews in Szentendre before the Second World War. The Jewish community first built a synagogue in Szentendre in 1850, and by 1860 the town had a Jewish school. In 1929, the local Jewish congregation also became the centre for the smaller communities around the town. In the courtyard of the memorial house, there is a memorial plaque to the martyrs deported from Szentendre and its surroundings in 1944.
CHÁJ GALLERY AND CAFÉ – JEWISH HOUSE SZENTENDRE
The Jewish House of Szentendre is a Jewish lifestyle centre, synagogue, café and arts gallery, which opened in September 2019, before the Jewish holidays, to provide a space of religion and culture for locals and tourists. With exhibitions, a café, lectures and other colourful programmes, they also want to reach out to Jews who live their Jewishness through art or community experiences rather than religion.
OPEN-AIR MUSEUM OF ETHNOGRAPHY
PROTESTANT CHURCH OF MÁND
Built by the villagers in a joint effort in the 1580s, the church of Mánd was renovated and remodelled at the end of the 18th century. This was when the painted coffered ceiling and furnishings were added, and the date of this important event was recorded on the ceiling. The latter has a baroque styling, with distinctive gilded stars, coloured coffers and rosettes. The two choirs, the pulpit and the pews were made by Gábor Vasvári Ódor, a renowned carpenter and decorator of the region, between 1787 and 1790.
GREEK CATHOLIC CHURCH OF MÁNDOK
Hungary’s only surviving log-walled church used to stand on a hilltop surrounded by woods, and was moved to the museum between 1971 and 1979. The Greek Catholic church was built by the inhabitants of Mándok in Szabolcs County, both Hungarians and the Ruthenians who settled there in the 17th century. The church has an earth floor and a shingled roof; the tower, which has plank cladding and rises above the entrance, is topped with a patriarchal cross. The interior is dominated by the iconostasis and the two-leaved royal door in it. The original iconostasis did not survive and was replaced by that of the Greek Catholic church of Szolyva, Bereg County.
CATHOLIC CHURCH OF ÓBUDAVÁR
Dedicated to St Martin, this Roman Catholic church has a slender tower that rises high above the surrounding buildings of the museum. This is an authentic replica of the church built in 1836 in Óbudavár. It has stone walls and a semidome over the sanctuary, whose floor plan is polygonal on the outside. The entrance has a stone frame and leads into a single nave, which has a domical vault. The nave holds plaster sculptures of the Heart of Jesus and the Heart of Mary, while under the gallery there are plaster statues of Thérèse of Lisieux and Anthony of Padua. The interior is reminiscent of the early 20th century, and the altarpiece shows St Martin in episcopal vestment, praying before the altar of Mary.
UNITARIAN CHURCH OF NYÁRÁDGÁLFALU
Construction of the Unitarian church that still stands in Nyárádgálfalva was begun in 1757, at the expense of the landowner, Zsigmond Szentiványi. Since it was built without royal permission, it was closed by Maria Theresa in 1759, and was allowed to reopen only in 1772. It was thereafter that the furnishings were made, and the date, 1773, is commemorated on the eastern gallery, the coffered ceiling and the canopy of the pulpit. Standing in the Transylvania section of the open-air museum, the church is a monument to the only denomination founded by Hungarians. Unitarians, a radical branch of the Reformation movement, rejected the doctrine of the Trinity and believed in the unity of God.
SERBIAN CHURCH MUSEUM
ORTHODOX CHURCH ART COLLECTION
Thanks to the nature and diversity of its collection, the Serbian Church Museum in Szentendre is unique among public collections in Hungary. The museum was based on the treasury of Szentendre’s eparch, and as icons and other liturgical objects were added, it became the largest collection of Orthodox church art in Hungary. The works on view in the permanent exhibition outline the development of Orthodox church art in the region along the Danube, including the revival and prosperity of Serbian culture and art in the 18th century.
ARTEFACT OF THE YEAR, 2024
SAINT GEORGE – BY UROŠ PREDIĆ, 1902
The Banat-born Uroš Predić (1857–1953) was one of the best-known painters of his time. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Working in an academic realist style, he painted a large number of portraits, genre scenes, and compositions with historical or religious subjects. Uroš Predić was a relative of Olga Bárics, who was born in Pancevo and in 1901 married István Wuits, a Szentendre merchant. The patron saint of the Wuitses was St George, so Predić’s wedding gift for the newlyweds was a painting of the saint. István Wuits had a shop on Szentendre’s main square, and as a wealthy citizen, he was for some time president of the Serbian Orthodox congregation of the town. Uroš Predić’s painting is a full-length image of St George, who assumes a heroic pose, with the defeated dragon at his feet.
CHURCHES AND HOUSES OF WORSHIP
Baptist House of Worship, 27 Rákóczi Ferenc Street
Church of the Dormition of the Theotokos (Belgrade Cathedral), 1 Alkotmány Street
Blagovestenska Church, 5 Fő Square
Cháj Gallery and Café – Jewish House Szentendre, 6 Pátriárka Street
Lutheran Church, 1 Luther Square
Church of Saint Andrew, Izbég, 73 Szentlászlói Road
Parish Church of Saint John the Baptist, 1 Templom Square
Požarevačka Church, 1 Kossuth Lajos Street
Preobraženska Church, 42 Bogdányi Road
Protestant Church, 14 Rákóczi Ferenc Street
Szántó Jewish Memorial and House of Worship, 3 Alkotmány Street
Church of Saints Peter and Paul, 1 Kucsera Ferenc Street
MUSEUMS
Czóbel Museum, 1 Templom Square
Ferenczy Museum, 5 Kossuth Lajos Street
Kmetty Museum, 21 Fő Square
Kovács Margit Ceramics Museum, 1 Vastagh György Street
ArtMill, 32 Bogdányi Street
Szentendre Gallery, 2–5 Fő Square
Open-air Museum of Ethnography, Sztaravodai Road
Serbian Church Museum, 6 Fő Square
Vajda Museum | PhotoLab, 1 Hunyadi Street
Imprint
DIRECTOR Anna BORBÉLY-TARDY
TEXTS Judit GEIGER, Borbála KOMÁROMI-RAISZ, Tzivia MYERS, András SZÁNTÓ, Judit SZ. TÓTH, Koszta VUKOVITS, iranyszentendre.hu, semu.hu, szentendre-plebania.hu
TRANSLATOR Árpád Mihály
COPY-EDITOR Bori ZELEI
GRAPHIC DESIGN Petra ZAJÁCZ
PHOTO Balázs DEIM (Ferenczy Museum Centre), Attila MUDRÁK (Serbian Church Museum photo library), Gábor TOKODI (Open Air Museum of Ethnography)
EXHIBITION INSTALLATION Zsolt PETRIK
COMMUNICATION, PR Judit POJÁK-GREGOR, Andrea BÉDA, Nóra SZÉLES
PRINTING PLOT GL Kft.
© authors
© Ferenczy Museum Centre, 2024
The open-air exhibition accompanies the Weekend of Open Churches in Szentendre
FB/Weekend of Open Churches in Szentendre
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