The Church of Togetherness

The Church of Togetherness of Pesterzsébet, Budapest

One of Budapest’s Reformed congregations is the Pesterzsébet Szabó-telep Reformed Church Community. It has been an independent congregation since 1943; before that, it had operated for several years as the “Szabó-telep Church Circle” of the central Pesterzsébet congregation. The community holds numerous regular events in addition to Sunday worship services, ranging from children’s activities to youth gatherings and adult Bible classes.

How did the idea of a new church arise?
The congregation had already planned to build a church during World War II, for which they had their own resources, but the troubled times only allowed the foundation to be laid at Bácska Square in Pesterzsébet. The war and the political situation that followed depleted the community’s assets and made it impossible to complete the building. As a result, for 70 years the congregation held its events in a family house converted from a former medical office. However, the deteriorating technical and structural condition of the house made it unsuitable in the long term for hosting worship services and the many other community events. The congregation initially intended to renovate the existing building, but this proved impossible. Subsequently, the leadership of Budapest’s 20th District decided that a new Reformed church would be built in Pesterzsébet, on Mátyás Király Square, and that Imre Makovecz, Kossuth Prize and Ybl Miklós Prize-winning architect, should be commissioned to design it.

In the spring of 2011, Member of Parliament Gyula Földesi and Pastor János Börzsönyi visited Imre Makovecz. The preparatory design phase began, and after a site visit, the Master produced sketches. He entrusted one of his students and colleagues, Tamás Dósa-Papp, with continuing the work. The master did not live to see the design assignment following the regulatory plan and the site development. The plans were prepared by the architect Tamás Dósa-Papp using Imre Makovecz's sketches created in the spring of 2011.

As a result of broad social cooperation, construction began in 2019. The Church of Togetherness in Pesterzsébet was consecrated on September 26, 2021. After the sermon by Bishop Zoltán Balog at the consecration ceremony, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán also greeted the congregation.

The building complex consists of two main parts: the main structure with the tower, which contains the church space, smaller rooms, the congregational hall and youth room; and the connected ground-floor-and-attic wing to the rear, which houses the pastor’s residence.

Client: Pesterzsébet Szabó-telep Reformed Congregation
First sketches: Imre Makovecz (1935-2011)
Responsible designer: Tamás Dósa Papp
Statics: László Pongor
Contractor: KÉSZ Kft. - construction manager: László Lehoczki
Technical inspector: Gábor Nagy - ABÉTA Kft.