Budapest   Sightseeing

The Great Synagogue is the gateway to what was once a sizable Jewish quarter in the heart of Budapest, in District VII. In the early part of the century, roughly half of this area's residents were Jewish. During the German occupation in 1944, part of this district - the area between Dohiny utca, Király utca and Erzsébet körút - was walled off and turned into a ghetto, where about 70,000 were confined under brutal conditions. This ghetto was the only one in Europe to be spared total liquidation - in this instance the arrival of the Red Army really did mean a liberation.You might notice that the synagogue at C-3, Rumbach Sebestyén u. 11-13, bears the same striped orange-and-yellow motif as the Great Synagogue. In fact, it was not so much a relative as a rival: the Rumbach Sebestyén utca synagogue was built in 1872 for those who were too traditional to attend the Great Synagogue. The Rumbach Sebestyén utca synagogue has been closed since 1944; what it will be used for in the future is unclear. Its owner, the Hungarian state, hopes to find a suitable buyer. One previous suggestion was to turn the building into a theatre. The Jewish community had hoped, with state funding, to open a Holocaust museum here, but the state has instead designated a synagogue on Páva utca (in far-away District IX) for that purpose. Another synagogue, this one Orthodox, stands at C/D-3, VII. Kazinczy utca 29-31. It was built in 1913. Enter at VII. Dob u. 35 and you`ll find an old huppah (wedding canopy).