A number of major synagogues in Europe were built according to designs that were chosen after competitions that drew architects who were often prominent nationally and/or internationally. The grand synagogues in Szeged, Hungary and Trieste, Italy are only two of many.
But some design competitions were held for synagogues that never managed to be built. There were two grandiose such projects in Budapest in the late 19th and early 20th century — one a new synagogue in the Lipotvaros district of Pest, and one for a synagogue on the other side of the Danube, at Széll Kálmán Square in Buda, at a site now occupied by the imposing Postal Palace, built in the 1920s.
A fascinating and detailed paper by Éva Lovra examines the convoluted saga of the unbuilt Buda synagogue, whose competitions involved some of the top architects of the day.
The open-access article, titled Perceptions. The Unbuilt Synagogue in Buda through Controversial Architectural Tenders (1912–1914), was published in the journal Arts volume 8, issue 3 (2019) — a special issue dedicated to Synagogue Art and Architecture and edited by Bar Ilan scholar Ilia Rodov. (We already noted another article from that issue, by Sergey R. Kravtsov, discussing 20th century synagogue architecture in Latvia.)
Lovra writes in the abstract of the paper:
The unbuilt synagogue in Buda is an almost forgotten chapter in Hungarian architectural history which drew great attention between 1911 and 1914. It was discussed extensively by the contemporary press in the early 20th century and by architects in the Hungarian capital of Austria–Hungary.
Between 1912 and 1914 three tenders for the design of the synagogue of Buda were announced, with the participation of well-known (synagogue) architects of Hungary, who represented the diverse architectural styles of the period. The efforts to build the synagogue, including the three failed tenders, the 30 competition designs and the opinions of contemporaries raised, and continue to raise, many provocative questions. The present study is based on the analysis of the designs submitted and criticisms published in official architecture magazines between 1912 and 1914, but not yet studied and published elsewhere. Through these, the study showcases the controversial architectural decisions that could have changed the appearance of a neighbourhood but failed to do so. The study puts the townscape of Széll Kálmán Square in Buda in a new context, revealing another layer of architecture, urban design and architectural-sociology and perception of the capital’s synagogue on the eve of World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Lovra writes that among the architects invited to take part (or who submitted entries) in competitions held for it between 1912 and 1914 were some of the most prominent architects of the day, including Lipót Baumhorn, the most prolific pre-WW2 synagogue architect, and Béla Lajta, whose work foreshadowed Art Deco.
Bela Lajta, she writes, won the first competition in 1912, while Sándor (Samu) Löffler and Béla Löffler — brothers who designed Budapest’s Kazinczy street Orthodox synagogue — won the final competition in 1914. However, she writes, “in the end their plan was not implemented, and another competition to design the building was envisaged, which was prevented by the historical circumstances.”
Click here to read the full article
Click here to see some of the entries in the 1912 competition, on the Bela Lajta archives web site
Click here to see our article and photo gallery of tombs designed by Bela Lajta
Click here to see our most recent article about Lipot Baumhorn