Tóth Vilmos: Funeral Art - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2006)
Funeral Arts in the 19th Century
studies of the work have been written by F. László Földényi, András Rényi and Géza Boros, and an interview with the artist himself was published in a 1994 issue of Budapesti Negyed (Budapest Quarter). Books and articles introducing individual architects and sculptors tend to mention funereal artworks, too. These include important pieces on József Huber (by László Pusztai), Béla Lajta (by Ferenc Vámos), Miklós Ligeti (by László Prohászka), Ferenc Medgyessy (by Gyula László), and Miklós Borsos (by Viktória L. Kovásznai). Mention can here be made of an earlier volume in the series "Our Budapest" (The Cemeteries oh Budapest, 1999) the series of articles entitled "Ércnél maradandóbb” (More lasting than brass) published between 2001 and 2002 in the former Sunday supplement of the daily Népszabadság (People’s Freedom) or the several volume burial-site monographs of Budapesti Negyed (A Kerepesi úti temető [Kerepesi út Cemetery], 1999; A Farkasréti temető [Farkasrét Cemetery], 2003). Funereal Arts in the 19th Century Within the body of funeral monuments to be found in Budapest, those located in Kerepesi út Cemetery play a central part. The oldest of the capital’s burial grounds still in use was formally opened and consecrated in 1849. What makes the date a turning point in the history of funeral practices is the fact that despite its original status as Pest's municipal burial ground, Kerepesi út Cemetery emerged as a major site of national remembrance within a few decades of its establishment. The burial grounds opened prior to that in Pest, Buda and Óbuda were all eliminated by the middle of the 20th century. The most important one on the Pest side, the cemetery in Váci út, was closed in the 1870s, while funerals in Buda's foremost sites of interment, the civilian and military cemeteries of Víziváros (Water Town, located, their name notwithstanding, beyond Városmajor, or City Manor), as well as the Tabán Cemetery, were discontinued by the late 1930s. Despite the relocation of individual sepulchres, many of the tombstones not deposited in museums were lost in the process. Due to the half-century interval between the closures, much more is known of the old graveyards of Buda than of the one in Váci út in Pest; that is why a more complete picture can be drawn of the historically or aesthetically important sepulchres of the Buda cemeteries than those located elsewhere at the time. The characteristic funeral monument of the typical 19th century Buda cemetery was a relatively small, carved limestone sepulchre featuring little but 9
