Mazel tov! The recent restoration of the synagogue in Karcag has won a sort of “people’s choice” award — second place in the public vote in its category in the “Baumit Life Challenge” award, a prize sponsored by the Baumit building materials multinational.
As we wrote in February, Baumit sponsors the award every two years for facades of buildings constructed or restored with its materials. Awards are presented in six categories, as well as a grand prize. The facades of some 300 buildings from 23 countries were in the running.
The award consists of a grand prize selected by a jury of experts, to be announced at a ceremony May 19. Alongside this is the separate public vote for favourite facades — conducted online from February 7 to April 17.
The facade of the Karcag synagogue was among 48 inning in the Historical Renovation category — and it was the only synagogue.
The synagogue facade did not make the short list of nominees for the grand prize, but it came in second in the public vote for the category.
Baumit said that nearly 100,000 people voted online for buildings in all categories.
Barnabás Csillag, the president of the small but active Jewish community in Karcag, told the Hungarian Jewish umbrella organization MASZIHISZ said that the community was “very pleased with the beautiful success, which was enhanced by the fact that it was an international competition and that the votes of the audience counted.” He said that the award certificate will be displayed in the synagogue.a
The synagogue, designed Bolgár Blaum, was inaugurated in 1899, and a major focus of the .70 million forint (around €200.000) renovation carried out in 2019-20 was to restore the original color of the facade.
“During the renovation, the facade’s decorations were highlighted with a color that harmonises with the base but is different enough to emphasise some corners of the building and the ledge framing it,” the awards web page for the project says.
Csillag told local TVin February that research by the Monuments Protection Authority had established that the original color of the synagogue was light beige with darker trim, and not ocher, as it had been repainted after WWII, nor two-tone yellow, as it was painted as part of large-scale restoration works that took place in the early 2000s.
He said one third of the funds for restoration had been granted by the Hungarian government, while the remaining two thirds were provided by MAZSIHISZ, the umbrella organization of the Hungarian Neolog community.
Read our June 2020 report, about the renovation the synagogue, with videos