When you have no money and nothing to do, go to a cemetery. It's free of course and it helps you to past time when you have nothing to do on a Sunday afternoon. WIERD HUH, going to a cemetery for a sightseeing excursion, but that's what I did, with two of my friends from Church just last week. Best part is that it's located in district VIII and I had already ventured into the district VIII mafia market just a few days previously. And here I was, going back into the gangster area. But anyhow, this cemetery is HUGE, and it actually has some very nice tombstones inside and many FAMOUS hungarians are buried here (Eg. Prime Ministers/Writers/Performers) though many lesser known hungarians do have a space here as well. As I said, the cemetery is big... though the famous graves tend to be grander...
First stop: Communist graveyard. The cemetery is kinda divided into sections plus you can identify the Communist tombstone by the star. Apparently during the revolution, there was a mob which came here and tried to destroy the place so we wanted to see what was left of it... but it appears to have been touched up and looks really new, so there was quite a lot of space...
I. The memorial tombstone:
"Erected on the 40th anniversary of the Great Socialist October Revolution, as a token of our eternal gratitude to those Soviet heroes, who, by dying a heroic death defending the Hungarian people's power against the counter-revolutionary attack on our motherland in November 1956, sealed the bond of Soviet-Hungarian friendship with their blood.
\ Budapest, 6th November 1957 \
by Workers of the Ministry of Foundries and Machine Industry of the People's Republic of Hungary"
Translation done courtesy of Ádám Gerencsér (who was also heard to mutter "Yeah right" afterwards :P)
Centre Memorial...
Check this out, someone actually ripped out the plaque and now it's just lying discarded on the ground...
Bigger communist memorial..
Obviously, this grave has been left unattended to for a long time...
Grave of János Kádár (1912–1989), Hungarian politician, the communist leader of Hungary from 1956 to 1988.
II. Sash from a wreath from Janos Kadar's grave:
"I was where I was needed to be,
and I did what had to be done."
Translation done courtesy of Ádám Gerencsér
Antall Jozsef grave...
Batthyany Lajos Mausoleum. His family members are buried with him below in the lower levels. To me it's interesting seeing the tombs of famous hungarians because many of these famous people's names are using as street signs/metro names etc. Batthyany ter metro stop is where my office is located at...
Pretty tombstone. I must say that all these tombstones really got us into the talk of what our ideal tombstone would look like when we die. One can certainly get alot of ideas/inspiration from this place.
Family tombstones, you can see generations of names scribbled on them. The sculptures are pretty impressive though. Top right: sculpture of man going through the gates of heaven and being looked on by the angel...
Writer's corner: Jokai
Tomb of famous Hungarian opera singer: Blaha Lujza. The Blaha Lujza metro stop is the stop that I usually get off at to go home, so when I saw this I was like, "I really have to take a picture of this."
Deak Ferenc Mausoleum. In Budapest, Deak Ferenc ter is like the centre of the city. (Think orchard road)
Kossuth Lajos Mausoleum (In Budapest: there is a Kossuth Lajos ter metro station). I know it's hard for people who are not living in Budapest to understand, but suddenly names can become very significant when you can make the connection on who the street/square was actually named after..
More modern family graves... you can have different types of stone....
Different types of writing... (check out the cursive signature on the tombstone...)
Or even start engraving your name on your tombstone before your time is even up.... don't know about most pple, but I found this pretty freaky..
Translyvania style grave
First stop: Communist graveyard. The cemetery is kinda divided into sections plus you can identify the Communist tombstone by the star. Apparently during the revolution, there was a mob which came here and tried to destroy the place so we wanted to see what was left of it... but it appears to have been touched up and looks really new, so there was quite a lot of space...
I. The memorial tombstone:
"Erected on the 40th anniversary of the Great Socialist October Revolution, as a token of our eternal gratitude to those Soviet heroes, who, by dying a heroic death defending the Hungarian people's power against the counter-revolutionary attack on our motherland in November 1956, sealed the bond of Soviet-Hungarian friendship with their blood.
\ Budapest, 6th November 1957 \
by Workers of the Ministry of Foundries and Machine Industry of the People's Republic of Hungary"
Translation done courtesy of Ádám Gerencsér (who was also heard to mutter "Yeah right" afterwards :P)
Centre Memorial...
Check this out, someone actually ripped out the plaque and now it's just lying discarded on the ground...
Bigger communist memorial..
Obviously, this grave has been left unattended to for a long time...
Grave of János Kádár (1912–1989), Hungarian politician, the communist leader of Hungary from 1956 to 1988.
II. Sash from a wreath from Janos Kadar's grave:
"I was where I was needed to be,
and I did what had to be done."
Translation done courtesy of Ádám Gerencsér
Antall Jozsef grave...
Batthyany Lajos Mausoleum. His family members are buried with him below in the lower levels. To me it's interesting seeing the tombs of famous hungarians because many of these famous people's names are using as street signs/metro names etc. Batthyany ter metro stop is where my office is located at...
Pretty tombstone. I must say that all these tombstones really got us into the talk of what our ideal tombstone would look like when we die. One can certainly get alot of ideas/inspiration from this place.
Family tombstones, you can see generations of names scribbled on them. The sculptures are pretty impressive though. Top right: sculpture of man going through the gates of heaven and being looked on by the angel...
Writer's corner: Jokai
Tomb of famous Hungarian opera singer: Blaha Lujza. The Blaha Lujza metro stop is the stop that I usually get off at to go home, so when I saw this I was like, "I really have to take a picture of this."
Deak Ferenc Mausoleum. In Budapest, Deak Ferenc ter is like the centre of the city. (Think orchard road)
Kossuth Lajos Mausoleum (In Budapest: there is a Kossuth Lajos ter metro station). I know it's hard for people who are not living in Budapest to understand, but suddenly names can become very significant when you can make the connection on who the street/square was actually named after..
More modern family graves... you can have different types of stone....
Different types of writing... (check out the cursive signature on the tombstone...)
Or even start engraving your name on your tombstone before your time is even up.... don't know about most pple, but I found this pretty freaky..
Translyvania style grave
