The Gloria Victis Memorial created in honor of the casualties of universal communism is situated adjacent to the cemetery of the town of

Csömör Csömör () is a village in the Gödöllő District in Pest county, Hungary. It lies in the Budapest metropolitan area, north of the 16th district of Budapest and west of Kistarcsa, on the western part of the Gödöllő hills, in the turning of t ...

near the North Eastern boundary of

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

Dedication

The memorial, being the first on this subject in the world, was consecrated and blessed on 21 October 2006 marking the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the

Hungarian Revolution of 1956 The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...

. On that day addresses were delivered by

László Tőkés László Tőkés ( ; born 1 April 1952) is an ethnic Hungarian pastor and politician from Romania. He was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2007 to 2019. Tőkés served as a Vice-President of the European Parliament from 2010 to 2 ...

Rainer Eppelmann Rainer Eppelmann () (born 12 February 1943 in Berlin), is a German politician. Known for his opposition in the German Democratic Republic, he became Minister for Disarmament and Defense in the last cabinet. He is now a member of the CDU. The ...

and others. The chief patron of the celebration was

Viktor Orbán Viktor Mihály Orbán (; born 31 May 1963) is a Hungarian politician who has served as prime minister of Hungary since 2010, previously holding the office from 1998 to 2002. He has presided over Fidesz since 1993, with a brief break between 20 ...

Description

The memorial was constructed adjacent to the graves of three Hungarian soldiers who died in 1944. A twin memorial, the work of János Víg is at its center. Placed on the circular stone there are the maps of the four continents shifted with respect to each other, with the affected areas marked with lead castings explaining the extent of the devastation visually. The section of the memorial alluding to ’56 can be construed as a victorious flag-carrier warship, indicating the fact that the Hungarian revolution was the first to succeed in forcing a break in the concrete wall of world-communism. In October 2008 a summary in three languages of the Resolution 1481 (2006) of the Council of Europe entitled ''The Necessity of International Condemnation of the Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Communist Regimes'' was carved on the back of the “world wall”. The two initiators of the aforementioned resolution,

Göran Lindblad Göran Lindblad may refer to: * Göran Lindblad (politician) (born 1950), Swedish politician * Göran Lindblad (physicist) Göran Lindblad (9 July 1940 - 30 November 2022) was a Swedish theoretical physicist and a professor at the KTH Royal Inst ...

of Sweden and Latshezar Toshev of Bulgaria were the orators at the ceremony of the handing over of this text. In the years since, the memorial has been enriched by the

Holodomor The Holodomor ( uk, Голодомо́р, Holodomor, ; derived from uk, морити голодом, lit=to kill by starvation, translit=moryty holodom, label=none), also known as the Terror-Famine or the Great Famine, was a man-made famin ...

memorial stone donated by the Ukrainian minority in Hungary, by the tablet commemorating the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, as well as the marble tablets honoring the memory of those slaughtered at Katyn and the

Romani people The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sig ...

(gypsy) and

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

victims of communism. The memorial was created and is maintained by the Gloria Victis Foundation.

Gallery

File:Gloria Victis Memorial – Blessing and Dedication.jpg, Dedication and blessing File:Gloria Victis Memorial – Göran Lindblad.jpg,

hands over the carved text of Resolution 1481 (2006) File:Gloria Victis Memorial – Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact Memorial Stone.jpg, Tablet commemorating the national socialist – communist pact of 1939 File:Gloria Victis Memorial – Holodomor Memorial Stone.jpg, Holodomor Memorial Stone

References

{{commons category Buildings and structures completed in 2006 Anti-communism Buildings and structures in Pest County Memorials to victims of communism Monuments and memorials in Hungary Tourist attractions in Pest County