The Synagogue At Leo Frankel utca 49: The Most Extraordinary Day

 

You walk along Frankel Leo utca in Buda, where you are told there is a synagogue that is hidden in the building. You pass many nondescript and decaying buildings, until you approach a block that seems a little newer.  You reach no. 49 and you notice Jewish signs on the building's exterior.

You peek inside the doors.

A kind woman unlocks the door and you enter a courtyard in which a small synagogue is surrounded by an tenement (apartment) building.

You notice its details.

A kind man appears and asks where you are from.  "The United States."  He asks if you are Jewish.  One of you answers "yes."  He then asks if you attend synagogue in the US, and you again say "yes.".  He asks if we would like to come inside the synagogue.  He explains that there is another person from the US there who has asked for a yahrzeit for someone who was once a member of that synagogue.  You enter the synagogue and stand in the back.

You watch as the congregants remove the Torah, read it, and return it to the Ark.  You watch as the congregation reads the Amidah.  You hear the Kaddish.  You recognize some of the Hebrew, but it is all said so fast, you miss most of the little that you know.  (You do not take pictures, but you try very hard to remember it as well as you can.)

You leave the synagogue.  The man explains that the synagogue was built in the 1880s.  (You find out it was built in 1888 by Sandor Fellner.)  He explains that the tenement building was constructed around the synagogue in the 1920s to hide and protect it.  He further explains that the hiding was unsuccessful, as the synagogue was turned into a stable, and many of the inhabitants of the complex were killed in the Holocaust.  Now only one apartment has Jewish inhabitants; the rest are Gentiles.  He shows you a sign with the names of those who were murdered in the Shoah. 

But, he explains, not everyone died.  His grandfather survived, as did his mother's family.

You thank the man profusely. You leave. You know you will remember this.  It is the only time in eastern Europe where you have been welcomed into a synagogue and people were praying and celebrating Shabbat.

#LeoFrankelUtcaSynagogue

#Budapest

Bela Lajta, Zsolnay Tiles, and an Amazing Surprise in a Walk in Budapest

Walking in Louisville is exercise made more enjoyable by talking to friends.  Walking in Budapest is looking: examining, admiring, assessing, photographing.  Sometimes it is re-seeing the familiar, and sometimes it is seeing something entirely new.

Bela Lajta is one of the most imaginative Hungarian architects of the early 20th century.  A student of Lechner, he quickly moved in new directions.  I have blogged about him before:  The School for the Blind with its amazing fence; the Vocational School with its engraved tiles.

Yesterday, Tony and I discovered a storefront Lajta had built for an existing historicist building on Szent Istvan ter.  I had known about it but never seen it because it had been boarded up.  But now it appears to have been restored.  And it's gorgeous.

Below is a period photo of what the storefront had originally looked like and what it looks like now.

The name has changed, but the decorative details remain.  Many are inspired by Transylvanian folk motifs. 

First the beautiful eosin Zsolnay tile work, featuring peacocks and their feathers.

 

The curving shape of fish.

And the metal work, picking up the peacock images.

(And here is a glimpse of the rest of the building--a tiny bit of Hungarian Secession, in a very Historicist building.)

#LajtaBela

#HechtStorefront

#Zsolnay

#Peacocks

Krusper utca: Discovering a New Street in Buda

We have been in Budapest about a week and a half.  Mostly we have settled in, gotten our stride back, and revisited favorite streets and restaurants.  It is lovely to have the city so familiar to us.  We feel as though we are returning to somewhere we almost "live," rather than as "tourists."  However, it is also nice to find new things.  (And already we have discovered a great new restaurant!)  Since we have been here for so many years, we are not unceasingly shocked by the new things we have seen.  Even though when we go back to familiar favorites, we often see something new.  However, we now count it a special treat when we discover something really new--as we did today.

Krusper utca is a short street (about 5 buildings per side) in the bottom of Buda: near Bartok Bela ut and Gellert ter.  This is a part of the city rich in architecture and we have been all over it.  But we had never been on Krusper utca, which turned out to be a set of treasures.

The first house we saw on Krusper utca at no. 10 was built in 1907 by someone named Fedor Csak Janos, about whom the internet is basically silent.  It is a pretty house, in a conventional Art Nouveau manner with pretty girls and garlands of flowers and nice ironwork.

Its neighbor, 6-8, also by Feodor, this one built in 1909, is of the same style but a little plainer.

So far fun, but nothing thrilling.  We got a little closer at the last house on the even numbered side of the street, no. 4.  This building by Miakits Karoly and Szabo Jeno was built in 1910, and it starts to hint at changes in style of Budapest buildings of the time.

It has Art Nouveau animals, but encloses them in geometric shapes, indicative of later trends.  (The building's stucco finish is badly restored.)

But it had the most beautiful door, complete with squirrels, hinting of what the building must have once looked like.  

Then we turned to the other side of the street.

Here at Krusper utca 3 is a building by (well-known) architect Porgesz Jozsef, built 1909-1910.  And while it doesn't look like that much at first glance, it features squirrels and owls in all their geometric complexity!

To go along with all the other geometric features

Even to the lock on the door.

A brief glimpse of the inside.

 Next door was Krusper utca 5-7 by Nagy Sandor in 1908-1909.

t has all sorts of beautiful abstract wavy lines, a beautiful blend of art nouveau and Jugendstil.

Inside

It was a beautiful day, topped off with a little lunch at the Hadik Haus restaurant.

#Buda

#KrusperUtca

#HungarianArtNouveau