Memento Park

Memento Park is an open-air museum in Budapest, Hungary, dedicated to monumental statues and sculpted plaques from Hungary's Communist period (1949–1989). There are statues of Lenin, Marx, and Engels, as well as several Hungarian Communist leaders. The park was designed by Hungarian architect Ákos Eleőd, who won the competition announced by the Budapest General Assembly (Fővárosi Közgyűlés) in 1991. On public transport diagrams and other documents the park is usually shown as Memorial Park.

A quote by the architect on the project: "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."^[1]

Memento Park is divided into two sections: Statue Park, officially named “A Sentence About Tyranny” Park after a poem of the same name by Gyula Ilyés, and laid out as 6 oval sections; and Witness Square (also called "Neverwas Square"), which lies east of the main park entrance and is visible without payment. Statue Park houses 42 of the statues/monuments that were removed from Budapest after the fall of communism.^[1] Witness Square holds a replica of Stalin's Boots which became a symbol of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 after the statue of Stalin was pulled down from its pedestal in 1956, and is flanked by two single storey timber structures housing the internal exhibition space, their design being evocative of simple internment camp buildings.

Participants of a "Red Star Tour" in the Memento Park

The exhibition hall in "Witness Square", Memento Park, Budapest

History

After the fall of the Communist regime in Hungary in 1989, many of the Communist statues and monuments were immediately removed. These formed the basis for the current collection of statues in the park. On June 29, 1993, the second anniversary of the withdrawal of the Soviet troops from Hungarian territory, the park celebrated a grand opening as a public outdoor museum.

2006 marked a new chapter in the history of Memento Park. A life-sized copy of the tribune of the Stalin Monument in Budapest was built in the Statue Park with the broken bronze shoes on top of the pedestal.^[2] This is not an accurate copy of the original but only an artistic recreation by Ákos Eleőd.

In 2007 a new exhibition hall and a small movie theater were opened in the Witness Square of Memento Park. The photo exhibition called “Stalin’s Boots” in the exhibition hall takes the viewer through the history of the 1956 revolution, of the political changes of 1989-1990 and of Memento Park, with both English and Hungarian captions. In the barracks-theater one can see The Life of an Agent, a documentary on the methods used by the secret police, directed by Gábor Zsigmond Papp. The film is shown in Hungarian with English subtitles.^[3]

Quotes on Memorilization

• “…I studied the plans of the Memento Park project with great interest. I find it a promising plan to keep our historical memory alive and to strengthen citizens’ sense of responsibility and commitment to sustain democracy." -- Zoltán Pokorni, Minister of Education (1998-2001)
• “The question of the Statue Park is of historical significance. It is an extremely sensitive and complex issue, a special task for the artist to express in the language of architectural design.
  
  A chief merit of “One Sentence on Tyranny” – Park is the dignity with which it treats its theme: by refusing to sacrifice its historical significance to the ever-changing powers of daily politics… with its grand design concept and disturbed peacefulness it serves as an example for solving a controversial problem in an intelligent and elegant manner.”-- István Schneller, Chief Architect of Budapest (1994-2006)^[4]
• "These statues are a part of the history of Hungary. Dictatorships chip away at and plaster over their past in order to get rid of all memories of previous ages. Democracy is the only regime that is prepared to accept that our past with all the dead ends is still ours; we should get to know it, analyse it and think about it!
  
  All of the statues, therefore, were positioned according to the original sculptural and architectural plans. This park is not about the statues or the sculptors, but a critique of the ideology that used these statues as symbols of authority.
  
  I realised that if I made this park with more direct, drastic and real tools, as many thought I should, I would create an anti-propaganda park from these propaganda statues and in doing this, I would be faithfully following the same recipe and mentality that we inherited from dictatorship."—Ákos Eleőd, Architect.^[5]

Sculptures, monuments and plaques

The Wall behind the Scenes

The Endless Parade of Liberation Monuments

The Endless Parade of Personalities of the Workers Movement

The Unending Promenade of Worker's Movement Concepts

Events

Memento Park, beyond its role as a tourist attraction, also functions as a cultural and educational site housing art projects, festivals, professional and public events. There are Retro Festivals, Film Festivals, and several cultural programs. To the youngest visitors, there is a museum-education program that sheds light on the exhibits and helps students to process what they learn. The park is a popular site for tourists. It is accessible by public transportation as well as a direct bus from Deák Ferenc tér.^[2]

Visitor information

The park is open every day from 10:00am until sunset. Public bus transport to Memento Park is available from Kelenföld vasútállomás (railway/metro station) with buses no. 101 and 150 to Budatétény vasútállomás/Memento park.

Kelenföld railway station (Kelenföld pályaudvar) is at the end of Metro No. 4 and can be accessed from the following metro stations:

From the Pest side:

• Keleti pályaudvar (Keleti Railway Station, Metro No. 4)
• Rákóczi tér (the Grand Boulevard, trams No. 4 and 6)
• Kálvin tér (Hungarian National Museum, trams No. 47 and 49, Metro No. 4)
• Fővám tér (the Great Market Hall, tram No. 2)

From the Buda side:

• Gellért tér (Gellért Baths, trams No. 18, 19, 41)
• Móricz Zsigmond körtér (tram No. 61 from Széll Kálmán tér)
• Újbuda Központ

Tickets cost 1.500 HUF or 1.000 HUF students with ISIC. Discounts are available with the Budapest Card.^[6]

Gallery

• 
  Monument to the Martyrs of the Counter-Revolution in front with several emblematic statues of Memento Park
• 
  The Republic of Councils Monument, based on a 1919 revolutionary poster
• 
  The Hungarian Fighters in the Spanish International Brigades Memorial
• 
  Hand-shake at Hungarian-Soviet Friendship Memorial
• 
  Cubist monument of Marx and Engels
• 
  Red Army soldier statue

See also

• Fallen Monument Park, the Russian equivalent.
• Grūtas Park, in Lithuania, known colloquially as "Stalin World"
• List of Sculpture Parks

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Memento Park.

External links

• Memento Park official website
• A Sentence on Tyranny - Photographic images of the re-presentation of Soviet-era statues at Szobor Park in Budapest, Hungary An Exhibition in Wellington, New Zealand (2006).

Coordinates: 47°25′34.80″N 18°59′56.15″E / 47.4263333°N 18.9989306°E / 47.4263333; 18.9989306