Former Slovak church in Budapest to be revamped as community centre

A former Slovak Evangelical-Lutheran Church in downtown Budapest will be revamped to serve as a Slovak cultural and community centre, under an agreement signed on Monday.

The agreement was signed by Erzsébet Racskó Holler, the president of the Hungarian National Slovak Self-Government (OSzO) and Milan Jan Pilip, the head of Slovakia’s Office of Slovaks Abroad.

The Hungarian government funded the purchase of the building at 57 Rakoczi Street in 2020, and will contribute to the reconstruction with 700 million forints (EUR 2.0m) in 2021 and again in 2022, Miklós Soltész, the Hungarian state secretary for church and ethnic relations, said at the event.

Milan Jan Pilip thanked the Hungarian government for its support of the project.

“Slovakia and Hungary are nation states with many ethnic minorities. Their national, cultural and linguistic diversity is a treasure, a wealth worth preserving,” he said.

The Slovak government is funding the works with 2 million euros.

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