Malosik Mausoleum

The Malosik mausoleum is one of the notable monuments in the Fiumei út cemetery in Budapest.

History

Maloschik Antal (1846–1921) was born as Vaclav Malosik, a child of a poor Catholic family from Moravia. At the age of 18 he moved to Hungary and amassed a considerable fortune as a wine merchant, also being one of the country's first ten taxpayers. During his lifetime, in 1906, he commissioned his family memorial from architect Elemér Wachtel. The construction work lasted 11 years, and according to family memory it consumed the cost of a three‑storey rental house. The building works were completed only in 1917. Maloschik died four years later at the age of 75, and he was buried here, as was his wife.

The family buried in the mausoleum until the 1950s, but from 1964 they no longer could. The condition of the building steadily deteriorated, and in the 1980s homeless people also moved in. When in 1989 the family members decided to reclaim their ancestors' burial place, the bones had to be gathered from the floor of the crypt. The mausoleum was renovated in 2021, and the chapel part was opened to the public.

Architectural features

Elemér Wachtel designed a Secession‑style building, but its model was the Indian rock temples. This type of architecture was considered rare in Hungary. The mausoleum was arranged on two levels: a chapel on the upper part and a crypt on the lower part. The entrance doors to the two spaces open from opposite sides of the building. The original Malosik family name appears on the building.

During the renovation the building's granite staircase was rebuilt, the copper roof covering was repaired, the quartz‑sandstone wall was cleared of vegetation, and the four leaded glass windows were reinstated. (Until then these were guarded by the Róth Miksa Memorial House and Collection, as well as the Maloschik family.) The window grilles, the granite altar, the damaged plaster parts, the oak prayer benches were also restored, and the bust of Maloschik and his wife was cleaned. The mosaics of the chapel's interior dome were stabilized with adhesive; this renovation is still ongoing. An electric lighting system was installed in the chapel.

The building is under monument protection.