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“Are the Russians gone? Are they gone. We live in a free country? Yes. Why not build it? Give me a reason for it!”– Ervin Nagy, former co-creator of Imre Makovecz asked the Hír TV reporter a few days ago. The reporter could not say such a reason, which is not surprising, because the 20-minute program is a desirable and at the same time increasingly realistic possibility, reported one of Makovecz’s latest works, XII. in the construction of a church projected for the Apor Vilmos square in the district.
The following arguments were made:
- Makovecz was one of the most important Hungarian architects of the last century, who does not have any public buildings in the capital.
- The church is Makovecz’s masterpiece, the “jewel in the crown” of the work, as well as its “essence”.
- The church can be the “spontaneous pastoral site” of Hungarians and European Christianity.
- At a time when man is afraid to profess to be a Christian, a sign must be left, and the church will be a sign that it is our faith.
- “More and more people” support the construction of the church.
However, there are serious obstacles to an ambitious plan. The most significant is that
the church cannot be built in the Plaza Apor Vilmos.Makovecz’s plan for XII. It was prepared for the 2004 District Township Invitational Design Contest, on the foundations of the great parish church in Upper Christina, which started in 1941 but was never completed due to the war. He also won the competition, which was not a surprise, as the then chief architect of the district, also chairman of the jury, was Ervin the Great, also mentioned in the introduction, who had been working on the plans for the church for years.
The area was sold by the local government in 1996 for one hundred million florins to the church with the right of first refusal, to the parish. The parish received a loan from the archdiocese, but the repayment sent it to the floor, and only years later was it able to begin cleaning the foundations (at the time, the Hully Gully nightclub) of the service house built on the foundations of the church.
Imre Makovecz learned in January 2005 that despite the design competition he had won, the chances of building the church were slim. This was told by the art historian András Rényi, who, as an external editor of the series of television conferences entitled University of All Knowledge, had just visited Makovecz to prepare his performance in February, when the architect heard the news.
444 recalled the case as
the enraged Makovecz sent Péter Erdő and the Hungarian Episcopal Conference to a warmer climate with a “palletized Hungarian decorated with landscape ornaments”.
According to Rényi, Makovecz, whom he considered very talented anyway, walked away from the role he assumed. “I hadn’t been in contact with him before, but he immediately became friends, felt like he could let go, and had such a tantrum over the news that the conversation fell into a hole.”
According to András Rényi, Makovecz’s anger had a reading that he felt he was the victim of an ecclesiastical political game. “I had the impression that he thought it was more important for the Catholic Church to pay the Gyurcsánys than to support their committed right-wing idealism.”
When Imre Makovecz died in September 2011, the issue of the construction of the church came to light immediately. The CÖF launched a fundraiser with half a million startups, and the Weekly Response addressed it in a major article in October. From this it is known that a change of government here or there, the church still did not support the idea: the episcopal faculty issued a statement according to which only the church could decide on the construction of a church and even the raising of funds for that purpose .
The objections of the episcopal faculty to the Makovecz church were also due to bad experiences with the campus of the Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Piliscsaba.
The Makovecz buildings, which lacked functional aspects, are expensive to maintain and start to deteriorate rapidly, did not create confidence in the architect.Regardless, there is no shortage of Catholic churches in Buda, as the small parish church is a bit further up on Apor Vilmos square, but the Krisztina körút, Városmajor, Farkasréti and istenhegy churches are not too far away either. Furthermore, a church of this size is difficult to fit into the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the church: in the absence of an episcopal throne, there can be no cathedral, but due to its size and cost, it would stand out greatly among parish churches.
The fate of the Makovecz church, dreamed of in Apor Vilmos square, was definitively sealed when the church decided to build a community house on the foundations of the old church. The new building opened in the summer of 2017.
The architect’s son, Pál Makovecz, president of the Makovecz Foundation, who cares about his intellectual legacy, confirmed to us that Hír TV had deliberately declared that “the church has a place in Budapest”, as he is aware that it is no longer you can build on the original site. me. As you said,
now the “inspired moment” is expected to “give birth to the decision of politics, the church or the good Lord.”However, when designing public buildings, especially churches, consider the slope and orientation of the plot, the size and style of the surrounding houses, the trees and the landscape. On the one hand, this ensures that the building adapts to its environment, but also that it meets the most basic functional requirements. For example, to know at what time of day how much light enters through the windows.
The fact that supporters of the case now want the church planned elsewhere to be built somewhere in the capital suggests that these aspects are secondary, as does the fact that Imre Makovecz’s plan was calculated on the basis of the church initiative of 1941.. But there is an even bigger problem: money.
“We worked in advance, the plans were made, and if an angel came by some miracle, there was a site, a building permit and the money was available, the construction could begin,” Paul Makovecz told 444. Asked how much money he needed To be available, he replied that he did not know exactly, since a public tender would have to be put out, but it could be many billions of florins, since it is a building the size of the Matthias Church.
Imre Makovecz also attached a personal thread to the site, about which he wrote in the church plan application material:
“I had my first sacrifice in 1942 at Upper Christina Church. In white bocskai, white feathers in our caps, white gloves, white tulle wedding dress for girls, white veil, crown ”.The extent to which this visionary memory influenced the church’s plans could only be revealed by well-known initiates of the work, but it cannot be said that Makovecz held back. For example, he dreamed of 200 stone angels for a building rich in ornamentation without function, which – according to the drawings of the sculptor Miklós Melocco – must be carved out of white limestone one by one. The same goes for decorating buildings. (It’s interesting about Melocco who was also a member of the judging committee for the 2004 design contest that brought Makoveczet a winner.)
The interior of the church doesn’t promise to be frugal either:
“The pillars and walls are made of thermally insulated concrete and remain raw. The nave and towers are made of glued wood. The shell is made of natural slate. The floor of the nave is polished black granite and glass slab .
Makovecz wrote in the application.
In 2011, the costs were estimated at 10 billion HUF and the construction of the church, which will be built mainly by hand, in 5 to 10 years. Ervin the Great, who had been working on the completion of the plans for years, told Hír TV that they had been working on the statues and ornaments for Chartres and Reims cathedrals, as well as Notre Dame in Paris, for “hundreds of years”.
Due to falling construction prices, construction would likely cost several times more today, making it even more obvious that the Makovecz Church can only be realized, apart from the obstacles already mentioned, if the government is willing. to finance it.
The fact that the Hír Tv material has circulated through all government media could even suggest that the government is behind the initiative. In reality, however, it is highly unlikely that Orbán wants to repress the Catholic Church through the press. Had this been the case, Zsolt Semjén, for example, will speak for sure, who, according to the 2011 Weekly Response article, once spoke with Imre Makovecz himself about the need for a spiritual sanctuary for all Hungarians.
We softened with the government from various directions, but no one responded. In the end, someone gave him back the signal that he had no idea what he thought was a sign that the government was not behind the movement, because otherwise he would presumably know about it.
We also tried it in the church, but didn’t get an official response from there either. According to a source close to the archdiocese, the church does not need the Makovecz church yet, because it is considered excessive, misleading and expensive to maintain, as the existing property inventory is also an excessive burden. However, before declaring this, Prime Minister Péter Erdő wants to soften whether the government is really behind the campaign, because it would complicate the situation.
Asked about how to know what Hír TV reported “more and more people are going to the plane” to make the building a reality, the president of the Makovecz Foundation replied that since the architect’s death, visitors to his website and the Makovecz House have died in Városkúti street. many are also interested in when the church will be built and have been receiving “more than ten letters per hour” since the news broadcast on television.
Drawings illustrating the article were obtained from the Makovecz Foundation.
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