Page 164 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Budapest

162  BUD APEST AREA B Y AREA

r Municipal Cemetery
Rákoskeresztúr

A new, historic significance was gained
by the Municipal Cemetery following the
1956 Uprising (see p36). Here, at Budapest’s
southeastern limits, the leaders and victims of
this bloody revolution against the oppressive
Stalinist government were secretly buried in
mass graves. Dur ing the 1970s, the country’s
democratic opposition began placing flowers
on the site, at the far side of the cemetery. Plot 300
In 1990, after the fall of Communism, the Until 1989, the state militia guarded access to a
revolutionary heroes were given a cere monial thicket which covered the communal graves of
the heroes of the 1956 Uprising.
funeral and reburied, and several memorials
were set up to them.

Campanile
A wooden campanile is the type of decoration
often found in old Hungarian cemeteries. It stands in
front of panels listing the names of over 400 victims
of the 1956 Uprising, giving the exact locations Plot 300
of their graves.

Plan of the Cemetery
In 1886, the city authorities opened a vast, new municipal
cemetery in Rákoskeresztúr, on the out skirts of town.
It became the largest cemetery in Budapest, occupying
30 sq km (12 sq miles).

Plots 300 . Transylvanian Gate
and 301 The 1956 Uprising Combatants’
Association erected the carved
Transylvanian Gate which stands at the
beginning of one of the paths leading
Main entrance 0 metres 500 into plot 300. It is inscribed with the
0 yards 500 words: “Only a Hungarian soul may pass
through this gate”.

162-163_EW_Budapest.indd 162 15/09/16 10:33 am