Examining Spatial Relations in Longitudinal Catholic Churches between the World Wars

Text: Tamás Kiss

The struggle between conservative and modernist architectural trends in the first half of the 20th century was mainly manifested in the stylistic appearance, i.e. the continuity of the “neo” (Revivalist) styles at the turn of the century. However, the preferred architectural form often naturally implied the adoption of historic church spaces, and thus the spatial concept of the period could not initially be developed to its full potential. The Eucharistic sacrifice is the fundamental organising principle of Catholic churches. Church architecture, in different ways and to different degrees from one period to the next, makes this fact dominant; the altar and the sanctuary that houses it are the focus of church space, everything else is subordinate to them. The oldest spatial conceptual tool for this is the axial spatial organisation, i.e. the directed space focused on a single point.
In some of the church spaces between the two world wars, a unifying volume of space can be observed. A major contribution to the unification of space is that the separation between the lateral aisles and the nave becomes symbolic, or sometimes even disappears, with the result that the autonomy of the spatial form of the side aisle is gradually reduced and the clearly perceptible spatial boundaries between the parts of the interior are gradually dissolved.
At the same time, the strong drift of the central axis of the nave, which had been typical of the period, is reduced, and the unification of the entire space gives rise to a kind of central (utilitarian) character. The latter is inextricably linked to the intentions of the Church to bring the various liturgical reforms, the ritual in the church, with Christ in it and the faithful in the church closer together both spiritually and physically, as well as the practice of the architectural design and functional principles that went with them.
Through this observation, the Catholic sacral architecture and spatial art of the period, with its modern spirit, will be enriched with new data that can form the basis for future research.