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

Phoenix-figure and sanctuary lamp by the entrance

TO THE CEMETERY

of Indian studies Ervin Baktay and art historian Zoltán Takács of Feluincz. Behind the gate with an inscription from the ancient Halotti Beszéd (Funeral Oration) is a round hall called Belvedere. This is the exclusive resting place of former communist party leaders headed by Ernő Gerő, while buried in a niche of the crypt lies Mihály Farkas. The ashes of Mátyás Rákosi (Party boss during the darkest days of the late 1940s and early 1950s) are also held in Farkasrét, placed in a rather obscure location to protect them from recurrent desecration.

Section 1 in effect surrounds the square in which the funerary chapel stands. The fine monument of the statistician Károly Keleti cannot be missed. Here also lie János Csonka, founder of the engine factory named after him, Gyula Kabos, the actor whose ashes have recently been returned from America, and Tivadar Bilicsi, a fellow comedian of the latter. The monument to the world-famous sculptor Amerigo Tot (imreTóth) was made by Miklós Me- locco. Among the numerous artists rest Anna Tőkés, actor; Barnabás Holló, sculptor; Béla Czóbel, painter; Margit Kaffka, writer, beneath a statue by Elza Kövesházi Kalmár; Júlia Osváth, opera singer; and József Csemegi, a renowned scholar in the fields of archaeology and the protection of monuments. Gusztáv Jány, a lieutenant-general executed in 1947, was brought here after he was rehabilitated.

Continuing our walk, we find, in various parts of Section 2, the graves of Dezső Dercsényi, an architect who specialised in restoring historic monuments; István Homoki54