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The Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Rákoskeresztúr
History
Rákoskeresztúr, situated in the valley of brook Rákos got its name probably by the crusaders. Its existence is already certified by the records written in the ages of Árpáds (1265). Scribe Lázár indicates this inhabited land as Kerstur on the earlier map of Hungary. Early XVIII century Hungarians and Slovakians began to settle by the governmental order of Vienna, then from 1756 the Germans settled here. The Lutherans could have built churches, chapels only since the Edict of Tolerance issued by Joseph II. The Lutheran parish of Rákoskeresztúr was formed as an affiliated church of the Cinkota parish. Divine services that had begun in 1783 had taken place in the school of the parish (in Pesti út of today), where the education had been in three languages until the lady-landowner had a church built at her cost. The Lutherans living in Keresztúr were carrying themselves the construction material to their church which then was completed in 1800. In early 1940s the pastor preached in three languages (Hungarian. Slovakian and German). The parish has been a mother church since 1807. The congregation had taken up a collection for a new church twice since 1877 but the money collected fallen victim to the First World War. The third collection was in 1939.
The altarpiece of Rákoskeresztúr-Church
Then a real race started against the work and money owing to the times of war ( first there was not enough money, then there was a shortage in construction material). The old church was existing till the laying of the foundation stone of the new church was celebrated (12 October 1941). In the meantime in 1930 churches in Rákosliget, Rákoshegy and Rákoscsaba were built up. In 1950 these three villages became one administrative unit and these three out-parishes also united with the parish of Rákoskeresztúr and they became a parochial unit. The old church had been demolished in 1945 and its roof was used for the reconstruction of the local railway station. The parish could have saved for the new church only the bells, organ and the altar-piece painted by an unknown painter. This, altar-piece can be seen in the vestry-room now. The new church was dedicated by the bishop Zoltán Túróczy on 14 November 1943. The first worship was held by the pastor dr. Pál Kósa who built this church. In 1948 the parish had to give up its beneficiary plough-land then all its real estates was confiscated without any compensation. Since that time this parish has maintained itself by the ancient forms of contribution to charity.
Description of the church
This church was designated by Gyula Sándy who planned most of the Lutheran churches built in the XX century especially round Budapest. This church was built in a three nave "pseudobasilica" system. The friezes on the facade and the tower ridge are the favourite forms used by the Renaissance in upper Hungary. In the interior concrete buttresses were built, the archways span over the middle nave, thus supporting the wooden parquet ceiling. The raw brick walls are laid on ragged-stone base. The facade has got a triple articulation, the middle one contains the bell-tower with a slender spire and there is a small stairway on each side of the bell-tower covered by small towers. Above the entrance door there is a Luther rose in the middle of the rose window. The inside space is wide and harmonious, all parts of it are original, as they did not get damaged during the second World War. The characteristically Hungarian friezes can be seen on the wood-carvings of the pews end pulpit. The altar-piece is a masterful copy of the famous Golgotha painted by Matthias Grünewald for the altar of the lsenheim church (about 1510).
The duplicate copy was painted by Munkácsy Prize and Kossuth Prize laureate painter József Csáky Maronyák. The windows were made by the glass painter with golden diploma József Palka (1943). Next to the altar there is an iron globe with a cross at the top patterned after a Finish model symbolizing the world-wide mission of the church. The globe serves as a candlestick when the candles are lit for the memory of the dead on All Souls' day. Before the altar there is an iron grating with a wooden shelf for the small chalices used for the individual administration of the Holy Communion. The baptistery was designed by Gyula Sándy, the designer of this church. The organ was made by the famous organ making Company Angster in Pécs in 1970. Originally it was situated in the parish of Deák tér, then it was transferred to this church.
In the parvis of this church a memorial tablet can be seen as the only commemorative tablet of the XVIIth district. It contains the list of those believers of this parish who were killed in the first and second World Wars.
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