Serbian Orthodox Cathedral Monument - Serbian Orthodox Cathedral Monument

A quiet park despite the main traffic artery marks the place where the Serbian Orthodox cathedral stood before World War II. Unfortunately, Tabán was almost razed to the ground during World War II and so the active Serbian Orthodox community now has its new cathedral on the Pest side. The bell reminds of the missing church.

This is where the Serbian church of Buda, St. Demeter's Church, stood. II. injured in World War II, dismantled in 1949. His memory is preserved by the limestone bell tower of Sütő - the work of sculptor Kristóf Petrika and visual designer László Rétháti.

It is rare for tourists to know which people lived in the best location in Budapest a few centuries ago, on the Danube coast. Serbian merchants and artisans built a maelstrom below the Buda Fortress in the 17th century. The winding streets, ground-floor small buildings and gardens, tiny squares and numerous cafes, stairs climbing Gelert Hill - this is what the Serbian town of Taban in the center of Budapest looked like in the 17th century. The story of this settlement is the subject of an exhibition at the Budapest Museum of History. Taban was inhabited by a large Serb community, which was further enlarged after the Serbs' migration under the leadership of Arsenije Carnojevic. Serbs lived in Buda, and the city was also the seat of one of the dioceses of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The trademark of the Taban was a high bell tower with a baroque, gilded dome. Namely, Taban was known for the splendor of the Serbian Temple, erected in the mid-18th century. And it was not only the Baroque dome that stood out in this town - the Serbian church community became one of the most numerous and influential communities in Hungary at that time. The Serbs had their own self-governing bodies. The church community had responsibilities such as tax collection, but also represented the community before city councils and state authorities. However, it has not been intended that the splendor of the Baroque temple be the pride of the Serbian people in Hungary for centuries. A fire broke out in the courtyard of a barrel on September 5, 1810, which destroyed most of the buildings in the town hall, and this fate did not bypass the Serbian Cathedral. The main reason for the spread of the fires was the narrow and inaccessible streets and poor quality way of building houses in Taban. After the fire, the town was restored. The congregational church stubbornly resisted the ground-floor and first-floor houses built in the style of classicism. In the restoration of the church, the iconostasis was painted in 1824 by a prominent painter from the early 19th century, Novi Sad painter Arsenije Teodorovic. The painter addressed the parish of the Serbian Church in Taban and the very charismatic personality of Jovan Vitkovic, recommending himself for painting works as "the first kinstler of the Serbian nation". Indeed, after two years in the workshop with students, he could also boast of this iconostasis at that time, probably the largest in the Metropolitan area of ​​Karlovac. Yet, five decades later, the Cathedral Temple is facing new adversities. That 1875, the swollen creek of the Devil's Trench flowed through this town. The water level in the temple reached as much as 110 centimeters, fortunately nature has spared the iconostasis, but not the houses that collapsed at the mouth of the stream, in which place Debrentei Square would later be formed. Serbian town of Taban, on the left bank below the Buda Fortress. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Erzebet Bridge was built, connecting the Pest side with the part of Buda, in which Taban is located. The new bridge has inspired city officials to plan the construction of a more modern and urban neighborhood on Tabana. Thus, Serbs from Taban were gradually displaced. Over time, the Serbian church in Taban remained at the center of the new park, and fewer and fewer Serbs inhabited this part of the city. The Second World War brought new destruction. During the siege of the city at the end of the war, the roof of the church burned down. After the war, the Serbs in Buda had no money to rebuild. After the war, this part of the Hungarian capital was restored, and the architects had some strange ideas, such as the construction of a spa complex, as this district lies on many thermal springs. The entrance to the center would be through - the church. However, none of these plans were considered. Eventually, the Serbian Baroque beauty was nevertheless destroyed in December 1949. Although city officials made the decision as part of an urban plan, an urban legend says it was done on Stalin's birthday, December 18, as a sign of "attention" to the dictator under whose control Hungary was then. At that time, relations between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia were on the verge of war, and the overthrow of the Serbian church, Stalin's honor, was a gesture of the obedience of the Hungarian authorities to Joseph Visarionovich. It is interesting that the church in Taban also became a model for churches built in Serbia. An almost identical dome of the church adorns the Cathedral Church in Novi Sad, as well as St. Nicholas Church in Ruma and the Orthodox Church in Subotica ...