The earliest written mention of the building is a request from 1749, in which Jewish families living in the country town asked for permission to renovate their synagogue from the demesne. The conversion was approved by the demesne, and the applicants paid 1,000 forints into the demesne’s treasury for the designs prepared by Jakab Fellner. This Baroque synagogue was rebuilt in 1861. The designs were prepared by the Sir Ignác Weschselmann, colleague of Miklós Ybl. Part of the square in front of the synagogue was fenced off whilst putting the Old Cemetery Square in order in 1883. It was used as a warehouse from the summer of 1944, and from 1977, the Museum of Greek and Roman Statue Copies was housed within its walls. The building is currently waiting to be restored to use. The text engraved on the granite stone in the building’s garden preserves the memory of the Tata Jews deported to the Auschwitz death camp. On the occasion of the Holocaust Remembrance Day on 18 November 2004, Maria Lugossy’s work, Martyrs of All Time, was inaugurated in the restored synagogue’s courtyard. At that time, the Tata synagogue was declared a Holocaust memorial site by the Komárom-Esztergom County. Address: 2890 Tata, Hősök tere Further information: (+36) 34/381-251http://kunymuzeum.hu/ The synagogue can be visited during the castle opening hours, but please call beforehand to make an appointment!
In the Middle Ages, the church of the Benedictine Abbey village, named after ST IVAN (John the Baptist who was called St Ivan in old Hungarian), stood at the top of Calvary Hill. The ruined Romanesque church was demolished in 1754, Jakab Feller expanded the truncated walls of the sanctuary, covered it with a tented roof and added a southwest-facing facade. He placed a graceful ridge turret on top. The church was painted in 1755 and then restored between 1908 and 1911. The damage caused by World War II was permanently rectified during the 1962-1963 restoration. Exposing the earlier church’s walls and applying a protective coating to the exposed parts means that the former church’s form is discernible. The Calvary statue group is the work of Antal Schweiger. The area is currently under renovation.Address: Kálvária-domb (Calvary Hill)Further information: +36 34/588-163
The Capuchin monks arrived in the city at the invitation of József Eszterházy. Closed off from the world by their three monastic vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, they are also characterised by their brown tunic tied with a white cord. The church was completed quickly and delivered on 27 July 1746. The builder was Komárom master builder József Kuttner, an apprentice of Jakab Fellner. Its exterior is characterised by consciously applied modesty. The Capuchin stone cross is attached to the exterior wall of the church. The simple exterior conceals an exquisite Baroque interior. The jewels of the single-naved church are its high altar with rich carvings filling its entirety and the side altars built on both sides of the chancel arch. Their composition is based on the designs of Josef Beckert, a sculptor from Vienna, and is the work of carpenter Brother Jácint. Carl Auerbach and Casper Reisner created the paintings on the side altars while the high altarpiece is the work of Ferenc Müller. The painting created in 1890 depicts St Stephen commending the country to the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the presence of his son, St Emeric.Services: Capuchin Museum and devotional shopAddress: 2890 Tata Bartók Béla út 1.Further information: +36 34/380-019tataikapucinus@gmail.comhttp://www.tataikapucinus.hu/
The towering monumental church on Kossuth tér, the town’s main square, glorifies the work of talented Baroque architects Franz Anton Pilgram, Jakab Fellner and József Grossman. The names of Adolf Mohl, Antal Gött, Antal Schweiger and János György Mes are connected amongst others to the impressive interior of the two-tower church. The two-towered, single-naved building’s exterior and interior decoration are both dominated by festoons depicting foliage, a popular ornament of the late Baroque era, from which this age’s style got its Hungarian name ’copf’, meaning braid. The main nave is covered by double bay surbased spherical vaulting while the sanctuary is narrower than the main nave. The towers are almost 60 metres high and both are topped with Baroque steeples. It is the 2nd largest church in Komárom-Esztergom County. There is a late Baroque-style altar made of red marble in the centre of the church’s interior; a carved Calvary corpus can be seen in its columnar structure. The liturgical space’s most beautiful ornaments are the marble rood-screen, the richly carved pulpit and the 1799 painting by Hubert Mauer depicting the farewell of the Apostles Peter and Paul. In the sacristy, there is a carved sacristy cabinet from the Camaldolese Reclusory Church in Majk, which is a masterpiece of Rococo furniture. The tomb of the great Baroque architect, Jakab Fellenthali Fellner, is located in the church’s crypt whereas a portrait statue of him can be found on the square in front of the church. Address: 2890 Tata Kossuth tér 15.Further information: +36 34/588-163 szentkereszttata@gmail.com