Pauline Monastery, Hargitafürdő

Architect: Arnold Macalik
Text: Levente Szabó
Photos: Balázs Biri

Nowadays, one can rarely find built spaces in which the accummulation of materials, the density of space, and the concentrated presence of spirit almost elevate them above their age and original purpose. What these places have in common is that they suddenly seem to be familiar, as if they have been known since time immemorial, even when experienced for the first time. This also holds true for the Paulines’ monastery in Hargitafürdő, which rises just like a tower from the terrain. This is an educational building that offers attentive visitors a new experience compared to their usual spatial experiences. The windows overlooking the silent landscape provided continuous natural reference points for immersion in the inward-looking and observant spatial formation. The series of spaces strung together along the ramp system appears both archaic and contemporary, or rather the other way around: the peculiar spatial formation of the monastic route surrounding the „axis mundi” built into the core of the structure, which is just on the borderline of discomfort. At first glance, the vertical axis, the core of the building, seems to be a kind of metaphorical, almost creedal formula, but everything falls in its place in the most natural way possible: at the bottom, on the basement level, there is the boiler room, above it the monastic dining hall, then the library, and finally the skylit chapel. The hierarchy of body, spirit, and soul cast in concrete. The strict, spiritually motivated spatial programme of superimposition is thus resolved by the monastery corridor transcription, which makes this juxtaposition barely noticeable, and the ramp route’s up-and-down, up-and-down sections of the internal pilgrimage. A reddish, rough-surface concrete shell facing the landscape in four directions, gray raw concrete and whitewashed block brick walls inside. Despite the secrecy of its inner world, this house also teaches us what we should really pay attention to.

Client: Transylvanian Pauline Monastic Order
Architects: Arnold Macalik, Csaba Lázár, József Szilágyi-Bartha
Structure: Jácint Virág, Lajos Bencze
HVAC: Kristian Kiss, Georgiu Ciprian
Building management: Károly Elekes, Attila Csiby
Main contractor: Impex Aurora