Szeged Synagogue Budapest 1903

Szeged (pop 165,000), 175 ks south of Budap­est, was one of 9 mid-sized cities in a 3-year project called “Rediscover and reveal the conc­eal­ed Jewish heritage of the Danube Region.” It prom­oted Jewish herit­age tourism and education in Hungary, Roman­ia, Sloven­ia, Serbia, Croatia, Germany, Bosnia-Herzeg­ov­ina and Mont­en­egro. Rediscover cost €1.8+ million project, with fund­ing mostly from the European Regional Devel­opment Fund, started June 2018-May 2021. It was realised by partner­ships of local govern­ments, NGOs and Jewish communities in the EU’s Danube Reg­ion, an area along the river to its hinterland, from the Black Forest to the Black Sea.

 Szeged Synagogue

The largest synagogue in Hungary was Dohany St Budapest, designed by the architect Ludwig Förster. Rightly so, since Budapest had a large proportion of the pre-Holocaust Jewish community in Hungary. 

In the Szeged Jewish community office, Jewish Heritage Europe/JHE dir­ector Ruth Gruber met President of the Jewish commun­ity and representat­ives of the municipality engaged in the Redis­cover Project. Budapest architect Lipot Baumhorn (1860–1932) designed 23 syn­agog­ues in the old Hungarian lands, now forming parts of Slov­en­ia, Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia and Romania. They included 4 in Budapest.

The domed and multi-turreted New Szeged Synagogue (1903) was very fine indeed. This turn-of-the-century Hungarian blend­ of Art Nou­v­eau and Historicist styles was the Magyar Style. It was Baum­horn’s mag­num opus, built for the 6,000+ Jews who lived in Szeged pre-Holocaust.

NB a new find! The original blueprints and documents for the maj­esti New Syn­ag­ogue were uncovered in 2018 by resear­ch­ers doing the catal­og­uing, indexing and digit­isation of Szeged Community Arch­iv­es. The archives had the draw­ings, plans and documents of Rabbi Imm­anual Löw (1854-1944), Baumhorn and textile designer József Schl­esinger.

Baumhorn designed even the smaller decorative details and the trees to plant in the surrounding garden. He coll­ab­orated with R’ Immán­uel Löw, a published scholar of wildlife and miner­als, and an expert in Biblical symbolism. In Szeged, every painted panel, stained glass, inscription and carving was filled with a symb­olic meaning that Löw analysed. See Upon the Doorposts of Thy House: Jewish Life in East-Central Europe (1994) by JHE director Ruth Gruber .

Windows of Celebrations in the New Synagogue of Szeged was edited by K Frauhammer and A Szentgyörgyi, and published by EU’s Interreg Dan­ube Transnational Programme. It des­cribed the history of making the synagogue’s stained glass windows and the rich symbolism that artist Manó Róth created after close consultation with Baum­horn and with Rabbi Löw. Note the synagogue’s festive cycles in the windows which address­ed even the smallest design details such as colours and patt­erns.

 Synagogue interior renovated

 Structurae

They estimated the cost to fully restore the inter­ior i.e rewiring, fixing plumbing and restoration of the sumptuous decor­at­ion, at c€6.6 million. The government announced in 2014 that it had alloc­ated €3.1 million and the rest of restoration was carried out with funding from the Szeged Synag­ogue Foundation. Thus the lavishly ornate interior of the grand New Synagogue in Szeged was restored in 2016.

 

Central dome 

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The multi-million euro restoration of the exterior centred on the en­orm­ous domed building, and included repair of the external towers, roof and facade. The fence preciou stained glass windows incorporating rich Jewish symbolism were repaired, and the Biblical garden designed by Rabbi Löw, who consulted closely with Baumhorn on many facets of the design and lavish decorative elements, was replanted.

The hardback book included a brief history of the construction of the synagogue, with the news­paper report of the inaugural ceremony in May 1903. Even more importantly, the printed book included beautiful photo­graphs of the windows by János Rómer, print­ed on transparent sheets to sim­ul­ate stain­ed glass in Baum­horn’s Szeged mast­er­piece.

Open-air exhibit in Szeged’s cen­tral Klauzal Sq­uare, Oct 2020.

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The synagogue, owned by Szeged Jewish community, is a city landmark oper­ated as a tourist attraction with visiting hours and also a cultural venue for concerts and other events.

As well as the synagogue, Baumhorn designed other buildings in Sz­eged, including the Jewish community complex and the ceremonial hall in the cemetery. The municipal government has been the REDISCOV­ER pro­j­ect’s lead partner has been engaged in local projects. These ranged from organising Jewish heritage it­in­eraries and cultural festivald, to planning an ex­hibition marking Lipot Baumhorn’s 160th birthday in 2020. Some pro­j­ects were postponed because of COVID, but a travelling exhib­ition about the Szeged syn­ag­ogue opened in Budapest at Baumhorn’s Páva St Synagog­ue, now part of the city’s Holocaust memorial museum complex. Baumhorn was also honoured with an open-air exhibit in Szeged’s cen­tral Klauzal Sq­uare in Oct 2020. It was all organised by Hungary’s Museum of Archit­ect­ure and Monum­ent Protection Documentation Centre.

Baumhorn also designed Szeged’s Jewish community headquarters building across the street, as well as the chapel in the Jewish cemet­ery. In fact half of the synagogues Baumhorn designed or renovated still stand, including:
1] Budapest’s Dozsa Gy­orgy ut, now a sports hall;
2] domed synagogue Novi Sad Serbia, now a concert hall;
3] Nitra Slovakia, now a concert hall & Holocaust memorial;
4] Lucenec Slovakia in ruins, re­stor­ed as a cul­t­ural centre;
5] Szolnok Hungary is now a con­cert hall and cultural centre, with a memorial bust of Baumhorn in front; and
6] Braşov synagogue Romania 

The Jewish community headquarters building is across the street from Szeged Synagogue.