Memento Park (sometimes called Memorial Park) is based just outside of central Budapest on the side of a hill in a very unassuming place. Created in 1991 by Ákos Eleőd as a result of a competition the site contains many many statues, or parts of statues from Hungary’s communist period.
“This park is about dictatorship. And at the same time, because it can be talked about, described, built, this park is about democracy. After all, only democracy is able to give the opportunity to let us think freely about dictatorship.” – Ákos Eleőd
The park is split into 4 sections, The Wall Behind the Scenes, The Endless Parade of Liberation Monuments, The Endless Parade of Personalities of the Workers Movement and The Unending Promenade of Worker’s Movement Concepts. It’s not a huge site but you can easily spend an hour or so wandering round taking pictures and reading the plaques.
You can get there from Budapest on a shuttle bus (info on their website) or if you have a hire car you can drive there. We visited on our way to the airport from Siofok as we were on that side of Budapest. It was a good pit stop for a couple of hours and it was pretty much deserted which did make it a little eery.
The concept is a great idea and it’s obvious it doesn’t have a huge amount of funding. Personally I think it could do with a bit more information actually on sight but perhaps that’s just my need to know what I’m looking at rather than just enjoying it!!
Here are some of my favourite pictures!
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