Veszprém – Our Lady of Hungary Church

This church is located on the corner of Cholnoky Jenő and Ady Endre streets with its façade turning towards Cholnoky Street. It is next to the buildings of a housing estate on a formerly empty lot. The ground plan is of a square with its corners cut off that is connected by a narrow section to a wedge shaped side wing. It was designed by the architect Gyula Ruttkay and was built through donations from the congregation as well as from Tibor Mészáros, a priest of the Veszprém diocese who was the secretary of the Prince Primate and Cardinal József Mindszenty. The external belfry was built in 1997. The church and its side wing are two different areas separated both in the ground plan and in function. There is an entrance hall inserted between them with an accompanying flight of stairs. The external and internal walls are clad in clinker brick. The cross, which is supported by a structure independent from the building, is located to the left of the entrance. There is a belfry with a wooden structure and semicircular arched canopy on the top of the brick wall to the right of the entrance. The roof crest of the church area, which also acts as a skylight, runs along the north-south diagonal of the square volume, stretching down to both corners. The church area is a square with its corners cut off, the pews are arranged diagonally, the altar is in the western corner of the square, and the entrance is opposite the altar, under the choir. The bronze tabernacle and the crowned (wooden) sculpture of Mary is located between iron pipes. There are works of art in the corners of the hall and near the walls. These sculptures of Our Lady of Hungary, St. Joseph, St. Anna, and a composition with two figures depicting the Risen Christ appearing to St. Thomas are the products of the Veszprém wood sculptor József M. Nagy. The pictures of the stations of the cross were painted by the School Sister M. Palládia Szentgyörgyvári from Kalocsa. There are two paintings by Erzsébet Udvardi in the church, her painting Devictus Vincit is located in the nave and the winged altarpiece Return from Egypt is located in the side chapel. Furthermore, there are bronze sculptures by Yrsa von Leistner in the church depicting St. Elizabeth, St. Stephen, and a portrait of Mindszenty. The chapel adjoining the nave is also a Mindszenty memorial room with relics from the cardinal. Read less