10 Remarkable Synagogues & Jewish Cemeteries In Budapest

Prompted by a golden period of alliance between the Hungarian Jewish community and the Hungarian aristocracy, Jewish people were drawn to Hungary in large numbers during the 18th and 19th centuries. By 1910, more than twenty percent of Budapest's residents were Jewish, comprising the second biggest Jewish community in Europe after that of Warsaw. Despite the Holocaust and the post-war Jewish emigration from Hungary, Budapest is currently home to the biggest Ashkenazi community in continental Europe with an estimated 100,000 people (here, more details about Budapest's Jewish past and present).

Hungarian Jews split into three factions in 1869 due to a disagreement about assimilation. The central synagogue of each of these three factions comprises the so-called "synagogue triangle" inside Budapest's old Jewish Quarter (#1-3 below). There are 16 functional synagogues in Budapest today – 31 in greater Hungary – with a total congregation size of only a few thousand members. Still, the enormous Dohány synagogue still fills up during High Holiday services. The majority belongs to the relatively progressive Neolog faction, followed by the increasingly active Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidics, and the Autonomous Orthodox Jewish Community.

#1 - Dohány Street Synagogue (location; opening hours vary, closed on Saturday; HUF 13,000 admission, which includes full access to the synagogue complex, including the Jewish Museum, the Garden of Remembrance, and the Emanuel Tree): The biggest synagogue in Europe, Dohány is a symbol of Budapest's Jewish Quarter. It was commissioned in the 1850s by the city's progressive Neolog faction, hence the synagogue's "Christian" features, such as the towers, the pulpits, the organ for music, and the placement of the bimah which isn't in the center but at the front. Hasidic and other ultra-orthodox Jews avoid the building to this day and regard it with sneering contempt.

When it was built, in the late-Romantic period, people believed that a national Jewish architecture should feature Moorish or Mesopotamian elements to evoke Jewish people's historical origins, hence the yellow-maroon bands and decorative motifs on the facade. Although the congregation today has only about 300 active members, the synagogue fills up during High Holiday services. A memorial plaque outside the synagogue, to the left of the entrance, marks the location of the house where Theodor Herzl, the famous Zionist, the "Father of Israel," was born in 1860. The square is currently named after him.

Attached to the synagogue is the Garden of Remembrance, a mass grave for Jews who died in the Budapest ghetto or were killed by Hungarian Nazis in 1944 and 1945. In the back of the complex is the weeping willow memorial, also known as the Emanuel Tree, with the names of Hungarian Holocaust victims inscribed on the tree's metal leaves. Before the willow tree, the Tablets of Stone are symbolically stripped of their contents. The memorial tomb of Raoul Wallenberg honors the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Budapest Jews during the Holocaust.

Also attached to the synagogue is the Jewish Museum (entry is included in the admission ticket), showcasing Jewish relics from Hungary, for example an ornate seder plate made by the Hungarian porcelain manufacturer, Herendi, and a 3rd century CE tombstone unearthed in Hungary.

#2 - Rumbach Street Synagogue (location; open only on Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; HUF 5,000 admission): The Rumbach synagogue was built by Budapest's moderately orthodox Jewish community that considered the nearby Dohány synagogue too modern for its taste, but was more liberal than those in Kazinczy utca. The young Viennese architect, Otto Wagner, who later became a pioneer of modern architecture, designed the synagogue in 1872; the building is a good example for the search of a Jewish national architecture that occupied so many architects at this time.

The Islamic ornaments – minaret-like towers and slender, Moorish-style Alhambra columns – evoke the medieval architecture of Sephardic Jews in the Iberian Peninsula. The construction itself was modern, using a slender cast iron frame filled with thin masonry. Today, this congregation no longer exists and the building functions as a museum with opening hours limited to Sunday.

#3 - Kazinczy Street Orthodox Synagogue (location; open Monday to Thursday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., on Friday until 1 p.m.; HUF 3,000 admission): The Kazinczy Synagogue completes the "synagogue triangle" of the Jewish Quarter. After the Hungarian Jewish community split into three in 1869 over their differences about assimilation, the most conservative orthodox Jews built the Kazinczy Synagogue for themselves. Similar to Dohány, this is actually a sizable complex complete with prayer rooms, schools, kosher restaurants, a kosher grocery store, and a wrought-iron chuppah under which a Jewish couple stands during the wedding ceremony. But unlike Dohány, Kazinczy is more inward facing. Observe those thick masonry walls that run around the block.

This of course makes sense, given that this community was the most traditionalist. Today, it has only a few dozen members, but Hasidic visitors to Budapest, mainly from the United States and Israel, often swell their numbers. The Kazinczy synagogue was built in 1912-1913 and its architecture is no longer the romanticized Moorish style as with Rumbach and Dohány, but a Judeo-Art Nouveau style. Unlike the forbidding outside of the complex, the synagogue features brightly colored blue walls, stained glass windows, and folk ornaments that are typical of the Hungarian Art Nouveau. During the week, the inside is open to visitors with an admission fee. Kazinczy's kosher restaurant, Carmel, is a longstanding fixture of the neighborhood.

#4 - Óbuda Synagogue (location; the inside can be visited with advance notice via +36 30 396 9020): Óbuda, in northern Budapest, was one of the centers of Jewish life in Hungary in the 18th and 19th centuries thanks to the patronage of the enlightened Count Zichy family. This can be evidenced by the scale and refinement of Óbuda’s Neoclassical synagogue built in 1820-1821 (the Art Nouveau-inspired pediment decorations came later). The synagogue was used for various non-religious purposes in the Communist period. Today, it belongs to the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidics (EMIH) and once more a functioning synagogue.

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#5 - Frankel Leó Synagogue (location; 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday; free admission): Built in 1888, this charming Gothic Revival synagogue on the Buda side enjoys the most active Jewish community in Budapest, with many young people in the congregation (they belong to the modern Neolog faction under Mazsihisz). In 1928, a six-story apartment complex wrapped around the synagogue on all sides except the one facing the Danube, from where one can observe its exterior staircase, a Budapest signature.

#6 - Medieval Jewish prayer room (location; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., closed on Monday and Saturday; HUF 800 admission): Of Budapest's medieval synagogues, only this tiny Sephardic prayer room has survived which today doubles as a museum (the local Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidim uses it for services). The wall paintings and Hebrew inscriptions depict the existential worries of Jews caught in the clashes between the allied European and Ottoman armies. Medieval tombstones and remains of the massive Ashkenazi synagogue, which stood across the street from here, are displayed in the courtyard.

#7 - Budapest University of Jewish Studies (location; opening hours vary, call +36 1 318 7049, extension 110 to schedule a visit; €10 admission): With the active support of King Franz Joseph, Budapest's progressive (Neolog) Jews founded a Rabbinical Seminary in 1877 to educate a more secular clergy. During the Communist era, this was the only existing rabbinical seminary in the Eastern Bloc. Today, 180 students are enrolled with an academic staff of 80. There's a charming synagogue inside the building and the university is also home to the world's most complete library on Jewish theology. One can arrange a guided tour using the phone number listed above.

#8 - Salgótarjáni Street Jewish cemetery (location; 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., closed on Saturday; free admission): The oldest functional Jewish cemetery in Budapest, the Salgótarjáni utca burial ground was where the Jewish business and political elites were laid to rest – the Ullmann, the Hatvany-Deutsch, the Csepeli-Weiss families, for example. This can be evidenced by the ornate marble and granite mausoleums designed by leading architects, such as Zsigmond Quittner and Béla Lajta. A highlight is Lajta's cubic funeral home (ohel) at the entrance inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement. Many of the tombs are neglected, collapsed, and overgrown with ivy because family members of the deceased were killed in the Holocaust or fled Hungary, leaving no one to maintain the graves.

#9 - Kozma Street Jewish cemetery (location; 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., closed on Saturday; free admission): Hungary’s biggest Jewish cemetery is reachable in forty minutes with tram #28. Most well known is the eye-catching Art Nouveau tomb designed in 1903 by the star architect duo, Ödön Lechner and Béla Lajta. The funeral home's vestibule contains plaques and memorials rescued from Jewish buildings in Hungary. To the left of the entrance is a modernist Holocaust memorial from 1949 listing the names of tens of thousands of victims under heart-wrenching excerpts from the Torah.

#10 - Kazinczy Street Mikveh (location; advance registration necessary to visit or use the bath: +36 20 961 5419): It is a bizarre sight: Budapest’s one remaining Jewish ritual bath (mikveh) is located right next to Szimpla Kert, the world-famous ruin bar that pioneered the Jewish Quarter's revival in the early 2000s. To meet the strict religious requirements, the bath uses only rainwater collected on the roof and spring water through wells drilled in the garden. The bath, built in 1928, was partially refurbished in 2004, when a New York-based Hasidic mikveh specialist commuted weekly between New York and Budapest to oversee the renovations.