Memento Park - walking among Communist statues and symbols

The Memento Statue Park cannot be really considered a hidden sight, as all the guide books mention it. However, I have encountered many travellers clueless as to whether it is worth paying it a visit finding their location. I used to live close to the Memento Park, so I chatted with these folks on the long bus ride and we shared thoughts about whether communist statues are interesting to look at or not.

I guess this open air museum holds something interesting for all those travellers who come from countries which have never been blessed by Communism in their history. The sad thing is, that they could make the Park a lot more interesting and fill it up with more information. The 42 statues were taken from different places of the city after the fall of the Soviet Russia and its empire in 1989-90. It would be very interesting to get to know more details of the whereabouts and story of each piece,

For example, just in front of the entrance, you can see some giant boots... They were the boots of a Stalin copy. In 1956, during the October days of the uprising, people expressed their rage by tearing down the statue - everything which remains now from that, are its boots.
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Strolling inside, among the other monuments, you can make yourself a vague idea how communism thoughts and feelings might have been. The fist which represented the strength of the worker, Lenin and Stalin or even Marx, the great thinkers, the ever happy worker always in movement and never tired.
Take a guide or a good guidebook to understand more, it is worth getting behind the scenes.

The Memento Park makes it up to you for the sometimes lacking stories with its souvenir shop: there are tons of funny items with South Park or other well known characters in some kind of "red" joke.

By the way, if you are curious where there is the only still public soviet monument in Budapest, go to Szabadság tér.

You will find a red star with Russian script on the stones, "for the freeing soviet soldiers" it says. Very close to the Parliament, in front of the U.S. embassy  - no wonder it had been attacked by some right-wing demonstrating crowds wanting to tear down the red star, the ultimate communist symbol. This happened during the recent years' protests, by quite hooligan groups (an urban legend says while attacking, they were singing football anthems..no comment...), nonetheless this monument in the heart of the city remains an unusual sight or even an eyesore for some people.



To arrive to the Memento Park, basically, you have to prepare for a relatively long journey from the city center (bus 150 from Kosztolányi Dezső tér)

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or there are also direct tranfser from Deák Ferenc tér taking you directly there for more  or less 4 euros.

Bakonyi Zsuzsa

Useful links
http://www.szoborpark.hu/index.php?Lang=en

Related posts
http://budapestgolocal.blogspot.com/2010/10/shoes-on-danube-bank-holocaust-memorial.html

http://budapestgolocal.blogspot.com/2010/10/funky-interactive-fountain-in-front-if.html