Kerepesi Cemetery (Hungarian: ''Kerepesi úti temető'' or ''Kerepesi temető'', official name: ''Fiumei úti nemzeti sírkert'', i.e. "Fiume Road National Graveyard") is the most famous

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

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 ...

. It is one of the oldest cemeteries in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

, and has been almost completely preserved.

Overview

Labour Movement Mausoleum on Kerepesi Cemetery 1 2007

Labour Movement Mausoleum on Kerepesi Cemetery 2 2007

Founded in 1847, Kerepesi is located in outer

Józsefváros Józsefváros (german: Josefstadt) is the 8th district of Budapest, Hungary. It is the part of the city centre in the wider sense as one of the 18–19th century older suburbs, close to Belváros. Location The main streets in Józsefváros ...

, near Keleti pályaudvar (Eastern Railway Station), and can be reached via

Budapest Metro The Budapest Metro ( hu, Budapesti metró) is the rapid transit system in the Hungarian capital Budapest. It is the world's oldest electrified underground railway system, and the second oldest underground railway system with multiple stations, ...

line 2. It is the innermost cemetery of Budapest, although it still lies about 2 km from the downtown centre. Kerepesi is one of the biggest national pantheons in Europe and the biggest outdoor statue park with its area of about . It is sometimes referred to as the Père Lachaise of Budapest. The cemetery's first burial took place some two years after its opening, in 1849. Since then numerous Hungarian notables (statesmen, writers, sculptors, architects, artists, composers, scientists, actors and actresses etc.) have been interred there, several of them in ornate tombs or mausoleums. This was encouraged by the decision of the municipal authorities to declare Kerepesi a "ground of honour" in 1885. The first notable burial was that of

Mihály Vörösmarty Mihály Vörösmarty (archaically English: Michael Vorosmarthy 1 December 180019 November 1855) was an important Hungarian poet and dramatist. Biography He was born at Puszta-Nyék (now Kápolnásnyék), of a noble Roman Catholic family. H ...

in 1855. Until the 1940s, several tombs were removed to this cemetery from others in Budapest – for example, it is the fourth resting place of the poet Attila József. The cemetery was declared closed for burials in 1952. This was partly because it had become damaged during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, and partly for political reasons, as the Communist government sought to play down the graves of those who had "exploited the working class". At one point it was intended to build a housing estate over the cemetery. Part of the grounds were in fact handed over to a nearby rubber factory and were destroyed in 1953. In 1958, a Mausoleum for the

Labour movement The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other. * The trade union movement ...

was created by Olcsai-Kiss Zoltán. During the Communist period (which lasted from 1948 till 1989 in Hungary) this was the only part of the cemetery highlighted or even mentioned by the authorities. After the

fall of communism The Revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, was a revolutionary wave that resulted in the end of most communist states in the world. Sometimes this revolutionary wave is also called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Nat ...

, Kerepesi was still considered by some as a Communist cemetery (for example a son of Béla Bartók forbade his father's ashes to be interred there). The cemetery, with its extended parks among the graves and monuments, is today open to the public, but interments have ceased. The Salgotarjani Street Jewish Cemetery is actually the eastern corner of the Kerepesi Cemetery, but it is separated from it by a stone wall. In summer 2007, some of the filming for

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (film) ''The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas'' (released as ''The Boy in the Striped Pajamas'' in North America) is a 2008 historical drama film written and directed by Mark Herman. It is based on the 2006 novel of the same name by John Boyne. Set in Wor ...

was completed at the cemetery. Lajos Kossuth Mausoleum 2007

Special sections

In 1874, a special parcel was established for those who were denied a church funeral (those who committed suicide and those executed). The cemetery is also famous for its arcades, built between 1908 and 1911, recalling the style of Northern Italian cemeteries. The artists' sector – in which each tomb contains a notable Hungarian representative of the arts – was created in 1929.

Notable interments

Kerepesi contains three mausoleums of leading Hungarian statesmen: *

Lajos Batthyány Count Lajos Batthyány de Németújvár (; hu, gróf németújvári Batthyány Lajos; 10 February 1807 – 6 October 1849) was the first Prime Minister of Hungary. He was born in Pozsony (modern-day Bratislava) on 10 February 1807, and was e ...

* Ferenc Deák (1876, designed by Kálmán Gerster, the stained glass by

Miksa Róth Miksa Róth (26 December 1865 – 14 June 1944) was a Hungarian mosaicist and stained glass artist responsible for making mosaic and stained glass prominent art forms in Hungarian art. In part, Róth was inspired by the work of Pre-Raphael ...

) * Lajos Kossuth (1894, Kálmán Gerster, sculptures by

Alajos Stróbl Alajos Stróbl (21 June 1856 – 13 December 1926) was a Hungarian sculptor and artist. His work is characterised by sensitive realistic modelling and he became one of the most renowned sculptors of memorials in Hungary at the turn of the ...

) There is also a notable mausoleum for

Ábrahám Ganz Ábrahám Ganz (born as Abraham Ganz, 6 November 1814, Unter-Embrach, Switzerland - 15 December 1867, Pest, Austria-Hungary) was a Swiss-born iron manufacturer, machine and technical engineer, entrepreneur, father of Ganz Works. He was the f ...

(iron-founder, pioneer in Hungarian

heavy industry Heavy industry is an industry that involves one or more characteristics such as large and heavy products; large and heavy equipment and facilities (such as heavy equipment, large machine tools, huge buildings and large-scale infrastructure); o ...

), built to the plans of

Miklós Ybl Miklós Ybl (6 April 1814 in Székesfehérvár – 22 January 1891 in Budapest) was one of Europe's leading architects in the mid to late nineteenth century as well as Hungary's most influential architect during his career. His most well-known wo ...

in 1868. Other notables include: * Endre Ady (poet) *

Ignác Alpár Ignác Alpár József (born Schöckl József; 17 January 1855 in Pest – 27 April 1928 in Zürich) was a Hungarian architect.József Antall József Tihamér Antall Jr. ( hu, ifjabb Antall József Tihamér, ; 8 April 1932 – 12 December 1993) was a Hungarian teacher, librarian, historian, and statesman who served as the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Hungary, holdi ...

(Prime Minister, historian) *

János Arany János Arany (; archaic English: John Arany; 2 March 1817 – 22 October 1882) was a Hungarian poet, writer, translator and journalist. He is often said to be the "Shakespeare of ballads" – he wrote more than 102 ballads that have been transl ...

(poet) *

Mihály Babits Mihály Babits (; 26 November 1883 – 4 August 1941) was a Hungarian poet, writer and translator. His poems are well known for their intense religious themes. His novels such as “The Children of Death” (1927) explore psychological pro ...

(poet) *

Béla Balázs Béla Balázs (; 4 August 1884 in Szeged – 17 May 1949 in Budapest), born Herbert Béla Bauer, was a Hungarian film critic, aesthetician, writer and poet of Jewish heritage. He was a proponent of formalist film theory. Career Balázs was th ...

(writer, film aesthete) *

Miklós Barabás Miklós Barabás (10 February 1810, in Markersdorf, Covasna County, Romania – 12 February 1898, in Budapest) was a Hungarian painter. He is mostly known for his portrait paintings, including a famous portrait of a young Franz Liszt, done ...

(painter) *

Jenő Barcsay Jenő Barcsay (14 January 1900, Katona, Austria-Hungary (today Cătina, Romania) – 2 April 1988, Budapest, Hungary) was a Hungarian painter with Armenian ancestry.Gudenus János József: Örmény eredetű magyar nemesi családok genealógiáj ...

(painter) *

István Bethlen Count István Bethlen de Bethlen (8 October 1874, Gernyeszeg – 5 October 1946, Moscow) was a Hungarian aristocrat and statesman and served as prime minister from 1921 to 1931. Early life The scion of an old Bethlen de Bethlen noble f ...

(Prime Minister) *

Lujza Blaha Lujza Blaha (''Ludovika Reindl''; 1850–1926) was a Hungarian actress and singer. She was known as "the nation's nightingale", an epithet given her by writer Mór Jókai. ''"First published in the Time Out Budapest magazine's monthly column "Magy ...

(actress, "the nightingale of the nation") *

Ottó Bláthy Ottó Titusz Bláthy (11 August 1860 – 26 September 1939) was a Hungarian electrical engineer. In his career, he became the co-inventor of the modern electric transformer, the tension regulator, the AC watt-hour meter. motor capacitor f ...

(electrical engineer) * Ferenc Chorin (politician and industrialist) * Adam Clark (civil engineer) * Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka (painter) * Gergely Czuczor (linguist, poet) * Dezső Szabó (linguist, writer) *

Béni Egressy Béni Egressy (; born Galambos Benjámin; 21 April 1814 – 17 July 1851 in Sajókazinc) was a Hungarian composer, librettist, translator and actor. He created a number of popular melodic compositions, including the one to Mihály Vörösmart ...

(composer) *

Loránd Eötvös Baron Loránd Eötvös de Vásárosnamény (or Loránd Eötvös, , '' hu, vásárosnaményi báró Eötvös Loránd Ágoston''; 27 July 1848 – 8 April 1919), also called Baron Roland von Eötvös in English literature, was a Hungarian physicist ...

(physicist) *

Ferenc Erkel Ferenc Erkel ( hu, Erkel Ferenc , german: link=no, Franz Erkel; November 7, 1810June 15, 1893) was a Hungarian composer, conductor and pianist. He was the father of Hungarian grand opera, written mainly on historical themes, which are still o ...

(composer) *

János Fadrusz János Fadrusz (2 September 1858, Pressburg – 26 October 1903, Budapest) was a Hungarian sculptor in the Neoclassical style. He was especially noted for his works on historical subjects. Biography He was the son of a poor cheesemaker, who ...

(sculptor) *

György Faludy György Faludy (September 22, 1910 – September 1, 2006; ), sometimes anglicized as George Faludy, was a Hungarian poet, writer and translator. Life Travels, vicissitudes, and remembrance Faludy completed his schooling in the Fasori Ev ...

(writer, poet, translator) * Ferenc Fejtő (journalist, political scientist) *

Károly Ferenczy Károly Ferenczy (February 8, 1862 – March 18, 1917) was a Hungarian painter and leading member of the Nagybánya artists' colony.Ilona Sármány-Parsons"Károly Ferenczy" Oxford Art Online He was among several artists who went to Munich for ...

(painter, along with

Béni Ferenczy Béni Ferenczy (18 June 1890 – 2 June 1967) was a Hungarian sculptor, medalist and graphic artist. Early life and education Béni Ferenczy was born in 1890 in Szentendre, Hungary, the second son of Károly Ferenczy and Olga Fialka, bo ...

and

Noémi Ferenczy Noémi Ferenczy (18 June 1890 – 20 December 1957) was a Hungarian artist, best known for her tapestry designs. She wove her own tapestries, and was influenced by the Nagybánya art movement. She was born in Szentendre, the twin sister of sculpt ...

, his brother and sister) *

Zsa Zsa Gabor Zsa Zsa Gabor (, ; born Sári Gábor ; February 6, 1917 – December 18, 2016) was a Hungarian-American socialite and actress. Her sisters were actresses Eva and Magda Gabor. Gabor competed in the 1933 Miss Hungary pageant, where she ...

(actress, along with her mother) *

János Garay János Garay (10 October 1812 – 5 November 1853) was a Hungarian poet and author, born in Szekszárd, Tolna County. From 1823 to 1828 he studied at Pécs, and subsequently, in 1829, at the University of Pest. In 1834 he brought out an heroic ...

(poet) *

Artúr Görgei Artúr Görgei de Görgő et Toporc (born Arthur Görgey; hu, görgői és toporci Görgei Artúr, german: Arthur Görgey von Görgő und Toporc; 30 January 181821 May 1916) was a Hungarian military leader renowned for being one of the great ...

(general) *

Alajos Hauszmann Alajos Hauszmann (also called as ''Alois'', June 9, 1847 – July 31, 1926) was a Hungarian architect, professor, and member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Life Hauszmann was born in Buda in 1847 into a family of Bavarian origin as ...

(architect) *

Jenő Heltai Jenő Heltai (11 August 1871 – 3 September 1957), until 1913 Eugen Herzl, was a Hungarian author, poet, journalist and producer. He was of Jewish descent, though he later converted to Christianity. Several of his novels and plays have been ada ...

(writer) *

George de Hevesy George Charles de Hevesy (born György Bischitz; hu, Hevesy György Károly; german: Georg Karl von Hevesy; 1 August 1885 – 5 July 1966) was a Hungarian radiochemist and Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate, recognized in 1943 for his key rol ...

(Nobel Prize winner chemist) *

Gyula Horn Gyula János Horn (5 July 1932 – 19 June 2013) was a Hungarian politician who served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 1994 to 1998. Horn is remembered as the last Communist Minister of Foreign Affairs who played a major role in the demolishi ...

(Prime Minister) *

Miklós Izsó Miklós Izsó ( hu, Izsó Miklós, german: Nikolaus Izsó; September 9, 1831, Disznós-Horvát (now ''" Izsófalva"'', Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, north-east Hungary) - May 29, 1875, Budapest) was a Hungarian sculptor whose sculptural style ...

(sculptor) *

Mari Jászai Mari Jászai (born Mária Krippel; 24 February 1850, Ászár – 5 October 1926, Budapest) was a Hungarian actress. Life Mari Jászai 24 February 1850 in Ászár, Komárom county, as a daughter of a carpenter. She worked from age 10 as a maid ...

(actress) *

Mór Jókai Móric Jókay de Ásva (, known as ''Mór Jókai''; 18 February 1825 – 5 May 1904), outside Hungary also known as Maurus Jokai or Mauritius Jókai, was a Hungarian nobleman, novelist, dramatist and revolutionary. He was an active participant ...

(writer, 1904) * Attila József (poet) *

János Kádár János József Kádár (; ; 26 May 1912 – 6 July 1989), born János József Czermanik, was a Hungarian communist leader and the General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, a position he held for 32 years. Declining health l ...

(socialist dictator) *

Pál Kadosa Pál Kadosa (; 6 September 1903, Levice, Léva, Austria-Hungary (now Levice, Slovakia) – 30 March 1983, Budapest) was a pianist and Hungarians, Hungarian composer of the post-Béla Bartók, Bartók generation. His early style was influenced ...

(composer) *

Kálmán Kandó Kálmán Kandó de Egerfarmos et Sztregova (''egerfarmosi és sztregovai Kandó Kálmán''; 10 July 1869 – 13 January 1931) was a Hungarian engineer, the inventor of phase converter and a pioneer in the development of AC electric railway tract ...

(inventor, engineer) *

Mihály Károlyi Count Mihály Ádám György Miklós Károlyi de Nagykároly ( hu, gróf nagykárolyi Károlyi Mihály Ádám György Miklós; archaically English: Michael Adam George Nicholas Károlyi, or in short simple form: Michael Károlyi; 4 March 1875 � ...

(President) * Károly Mária Kertbeny (writer, translator, coined the words "heterosexual" and "homosexual") * Géza Kertész (football player and manager, anti-fascist resistant - reburied 1946) *

Károly Kisfaludy Károly Kisfaludy (5 February 1788 – 21 November 1830) was a Hungarian dramatist and artist, brother of Sándor Kisfaludy. He was the founder of the national drama. Early life The youngest of eight children, his mother died in childbirth, an ...

(poet, dramatist, painter) * Dezső Kosztolányi (poet, writer) * Gyula Krúdy (writer) *

Ödön Lechner Ödön Lechner (born Eugen Lechner, 27 August 1845 – 10 June 1914) was a Hungarian architect, one of the prime representatives of the Hungarian Szecesszió style, which was related to Art Nouveau in the rest of Europe, including the Vienna ...

(architect) *

Lipót Fejér Lipót Fejér (or Leopold Fejér, ; 9 February 1880 – 15 October 1959) was a Hungarian mathematician of Jewish heritage. Fejér was born Leopold Weisz, and changed to the Hungarian name Fejér around 1900. Biography Fejér studied mathematic ...

(mathematician) *

Károly Lotz Lotz Károly Antal Pál, or Karl Anton Paul Lotz (16 December 1833 – 13 October 1904) was a Germans, German-Hungarian people, Hungarian Painting, painter. Career Karl Lotz was born in Bad Homburg vor der Taunus, Höhe, Germany, the 7th an ...

(painter) *

György Lukács György Lukács (born György Bernát Löwinger; hu, szegedi Lukács György Bernát; german: Georg Bernard Baron Lukács von Szegedin; 13 April 1885 – 4 June 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher, literary historian, critic, and aesth ...

(philosopher) * Viktor Madarász (painter) *

Ferenc Mádl Ferenc Mádl (; 29 January 1931 – 29 May 2011) * : Collar of the Order of Merit (Chile), Order of Merit (25 September 2002). References External links His biography at the website of the Office of the President of the Republic of Hung ...

(President, jurist) *

Ignác Martinovics Ignác Martinovics ( sh, Ignjat Martinović, Игњат Мартиновић; 20 July 1755 – 20 May 1795) was a Hungarian scholar, chemist, philosopher, writer, secret agent, Freemason and a leader of the Hungarian Jacobin movement. He was ...

(Franciscan, leader of the Hungarian Jacobin movement) * Ferenc Medgyessy (sculptor) *

László Mednyánszky Baron László Mednyánszky or ''Ladislaus Josephus Balthasar Eustachius Mednyánszky'' ( sk, Ladislav Medňanský) (23 April 1852 – 17 April 1919), a Slovak- Hungarian painter-philosopher, is one of the most enigmatic figures in the history ...

(painter) *

Kálmán Mikszáth Kálmán Mikszáth de Kiscsoltó (16 January 1847 – 28 May 1910) was a widely reputed Hungarian novelist, journalist, and politician. His work remains in print in Hungarian and still appears from time to time in other languages. Biography Mik ...

(writer) *

Zsigmond Móricz Zsigmond Móricz (; 29 June 1879, Tiszacsécse – 4 September 1942) was a major Hungarian novelist and Social Realist. Biography Zsigmond Móricz was born in Tiszacsécse in 1879 to Bálint Móricz and Erzsébet Pallagi. On his mother's ...

(writer) *

Mihály Munkácsy Mihály Munkácsy (20 February 1844 – 1 May 1900) was a Hungarian painter. He earned international reputation with his genre pictures and large-scale biblical paintings. Early years Munkácsy was born as ''Mihály Leó Lieb'' ( hu, Li ...

(painter) * Arthur J. Patterson (academic) *

Karl Polanyi Karl Paul Polanyi (; hu, Polányi Károly ; 25 October 1886 – 23 April 1964),''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. 2003) vol 9. p. 554 was an Austro-Hungarian economic anthropologist and politician, best known ...

(economist) *

Tivadar Puskás Tivadar Puskás de Ditró (in older English technical literature: Theodore Puskás) (17 September 1844 – 16 March 1893) was a Hungarian inventor, telephone pioneer, and inventor of the telephone exchange. He was also the founder of Te ...

(engineer, inventor) *

Miklós Radnóti Miklós Radnóti (born Miklós Glatter; 5 May 1909 – November 1944) was a Hungarian poet and teacher. He was murdered in the Holocaust. Biography Miklós Glatter was the son of a vendor of the textile business company Brück & Grosz in Bu ...

(poet) *

Frigyes Riesz Frigyes Riesz ( hu, Riesz Frigyes, , sometimes spelled as Frederic; 22 January 1880 – 28 February 1956) was a HungarianEberhard Zeidler: Nonlinear Functional Analysis and Its Applications: Linear monotone operators. Springer, 199/ref> mathema ...

(mathematician) *

Ignaz Semmelweis Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis (; hu, Semmelweis Ignác Fülöp ; 1 July 1818 – 13 August 1865) was a Hungarian physician and scientist, who was an early pioneer of antiseptic procedures. Described as the "saviour of mothers", he discovered that t ...

(doctor, "Saviour of Mothers") *

Imre Steindl Imre Ferenc Károly Steindl (29 October 1839 – 31 August 1902) was a Hungarian architect. Steindl (sometimes called in German ''Emerich Steindl'' or ''Emmerich Steindl'') was the designer of the Hungarian Parliament Building, an associate pr ...

(architect) *

(sculptor) * Antal Szerb (writer) *

Leo Szilard Leo Szilard (; hu, Szilárd Leó, pronounced ; born Leó Spitz; February 11, 1898 – May 30, 1964) was a Hungarian-German-American physicist and inventor. He conceived the nuclear chain reaction in 1933, patented the idea of a nuclear ...

(physicist) *

Mihály Táncsics Mihály Táncsics ( sr, Михајло Танчић, Mihajlo Tančić; 21 April 1799 – 28 June 1884) was a Hungarian writer, teacher, journalist and politician. Life Mihály Táncsics was born on 21 April 1799 in the village of Ácsteszér ...

(writer, politician) * István Tóth (football player and manager, anti-fascist resistant - reburial in 1946) *

Ármin Vámbéry Ármin Vámbéry (born Hermann Wamberger; 19 March 183215 September 1913), also known as Arminius Vámbéry, was a Hungarian Turkology, Turkologist and traveller. Early life Vámbéry was born in Szent-György, Kingdom of Hungary (now Svät� ...

(linguist) *

(poet) – his tomb is one of the oldest extant tombs: he was interred in 1855 * Leó Weiner (composer) *

Sándor Wekerle Sándor Wekerle (14 November 1848 – 26 August 1921) was a Hungarian politician who served three times as prime minister. He was the first non-noble to hold the office in Hungary. Biography He was born in Mór to a Danube Swabian family, i ...

(Prime Minister three times) *

(architect) * György Zala (sculptor) *

Mihály Zichy Mihály Zichy (; german: Michael von Zichy; 15 October 1827 – 28 February 1906) was a Hungarian painter and graphic artist. He is considered a notable representative of Hungarian romantic painting. He lived and worked primarily in St. Peter ...

(painter, graphic artist) :''Note:'' This list is very far from complete. The full list of notable persons would include about 700 names. Their complete listing is available in a free booklet available at the cemetery.

Bibliography

* Lukacs Csernus and Zsigmond Triff, ''The Cemeteries of Budapest'', Budapest, 1999.

Notes

Resources

*
Múlt-kor article

Overview

Special sections

Notable interments

See also

Bibliography

Notes

Resources

External links