Memento Park

(The Buda Volunteers Regiment Memorial statue, Steinmetz statue, and Ostapenko statue)

On a cold, lackluster day way back in February I decided it was high time I finally make the trek out to Memento Park and soak up some history. So off I went, the trip taking about two-ish hours door to door. It was an interesting afternoon that helped to break up the monotony of a grey, bleak weekend but not necessarily something you need to go out of your way to see, if you're not interested in Hungarian-Soviet history.

 Entrance.

The back of the entrance and the Red Army Soldier statue.

 Red army soldier statue (Felszabadító szovjet katona) -- 1947 -- from Gellért Hill.

 Béla Kun Memorial (Kun Béla emlékmű) -- 1986 -- from Vérmező-park.

 Hideous nightmare. Just kidding! Sort of. This is the Heroes of Peoples' Power Memorial (A néphatalom hőseinek emlékhelye) --1983 -- from Köztársaság (Republic) square.

Republic of Councils Monument (Tanácsköztársasági emlékmű) -- 1969 -- Dózsa György street (Felvonulási tér).

 Workers' Movement Memorial (Munkásmozgalmi emlékmű) -- 1976 -- Hűvösvölgy.

 Another shot of Steinmetz and Ostapenko and these guys in the background who were setting up some sort of photography project. The letters, I think, spelled out "CONTROL".

 Lenin -- 1958 -- Csepel, Vasmű (Iron Works) main entrance.

 Béla Kun, Jenő Landler and Tibor Szamuely Memorial (Munkásmozgalmi harcosok emlékműve) -- 1967 -- Kun Béla square (today Ludovika square).

Did I ask some random (possibly non-English speaking, they seemed a bit confused when I shoved the camera into their hands) tourists to take a picture of me in this car? Yes. Yes I did. 

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels -- 1971 -- ker. Jászai Mari square (at the main entrance of the communist party headquarters).

 Entrance to the very interesting photography exhibit about the 1956 uprising and changing political circumstances in the second half of the 20th century. I'm pretty sure the building that houses this exhibit is an abandoned barrack. Just a good old-fashioned wooden shack.

Recreation of Stalin's boots, inside the building.

About this, which stands opposite the entrance to the park, from Wikipedia (as is all of this information): 

"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. This is not an accurate copy of the original but only an artistic recreation by Ákos Eleőd."

Not exactly a thrill a minute, and the bus ride to get out here is not really what I would describe as scenic or convenient, but I personally found this site to be pretty interesting if a little underwhelming. It's got the stoic grandeur of a graveyard, and yet to me it felt that there was very little humanity in all of these hulking, brutish monuments.