St Ladislaus in Kőbánya: the forgotten Lechner of Budapest's tenth district

In Kőbánya, Budapest's tenth district, on Szent László tér (Szent László tér 25), rises an 83-metre tower: it is the tallest church steeple in Budapest — only St Stephen's Basilica surpasses it — and yet almost no tourist itinerary names it. It is the bell tower of the church of St Ladislaus (Szent László-templom), one of the lesser-known works of Ödön Lechner, the architect who in Budapest designed the Museum of Applied Arts and the former Postal Savings Bank.

The construction

The building's history explains much of its hybrid form. Lechner lived in Kőbánya — his father ran a brick kiln on Maglódi út — and in 1891 he was commissioned to build the parish church on the site of an old pond. His first idea was a centrally planned church of Byzantine layout, which the clients rejected: they wanted a tall, spired tower, in the tradition of Hungarian churches. Lechner reworked the design (the fifth and final version dates to September 1893) and the work took place between 1894 and 1899. The consecration came in 1900, with the inauguration on 27 June. The result fuses Romanesque and French Gothic elements with Renaissance, Baroque, Persian and Hungarian folk-art touches.

The Zsolnay ceramics

What really catches the eye, inside and out, is the ceramic work of the Zsolnay factory of Pécs. The roof is covered in glazed tiles; inside and out the factory produced vitrified bricks, ornaments, statues, the attics, the altars, the pulpit, the baptismal font and the holy-water stoup. It's the same chromatic language — Zsolnay's iridescent eosin — that Lechner used elsewhere in the city, here applied to a sacred building. The stained-glass windows of the period completed the decoration. It's worth going in calmly and looking up: the tower soars over the whole neighbourhood and makes it the area's visual landmark.

The marks of the twentieth century

The building bears the marks of the twentieth century. During the siege of Budapest the tower was used as a firing position by the Germans and the church as a stable by the Soviets; the damage was severe and in 1957 the crowning lantern burned as well. The restoration, begun in 1974, was completed in 1994, and in 1991 the building regained its monument protection. Today the church is owned by the Municipality of Kőbánya and appears on the UNESCO tentative list as part of the pre-modern architecture of Ödön Lechner. On the forecourt stands a statue of St Ladislaus by the sculptor Károly Antal, placed in the 1940s.

How to get there

Why it's so little visited: Kőbánya is a peripheral district, working-class and industrial by tradition (there were breweries and cellars here), outside the mental geography of the tourist who moves between Pest and the Castle. That's exactly why admission is free and you'll rarely find tour groups. You get there by trams 3, 28 and 62 or buses 9 and 95 from Örs vezér tere or Blaha Lujza tér; the square is in the heart of the district. The parish's approximate hours: Monday to Saturday 9-12 and 14:30-19, Sunday open continuously from 8 until the evening mass (check on site before you go). Half an hour by tram from the centre for one of the most surprising pieces of architecture in Budapest.