Csernus Lukács - Triff Zsigmond: The Cemeteries of Budapest - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1999)

The Pantheon of the L^bogr Movement and its pylons

Glory. After a decree was issued in 1956, only those associated with the labour movement were permitted to be buried in this cemetery. Thus even before someone was interred in the section of artists, scholars and scientists, the political stance of the deceased was assessed. (A publication entitled A Mező Imre úti sírkert - The Mező Imre út Cemetery - issued in 1985, listed only the names of those buried in the Pantheon of the Labour Movement. It is no wonder then that the public identified the two hectares of this Pantheon with the whole of the cemetery as a national place of reverence.)

In spite of the latest legal developments of the past few years, no final decision has been reached regarding the fate of the Kerepesi Cemetery and that of the graves of the prominent figures who should deserve a place in the National Pantheon. Not only the questions of protecting, maintaining and, if necessary, restoring works of art and other monuments are left unresolved, but the conditions under which someone can be buried here also remain undetermined. However, there is at least a computer data bank in the cemetery, the result of several years’ work, containing information on those buried in the cemetery and on the monuments one can see here. Since the early 1970s, walks have regularly been organised to acquaint visitors with the cemetery’s history. Initiated by Jenő Ladányi, the director of the institution, a museum of reverence has been built here to provide information on funeral customs and to display various artefacts used in burials as well as documents collected from, and about, different cemeteries that have by now disappeared.

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