Fiumei Road Cemetery

Most visitors never find it, which is a shame, because the Fiumei Road Cemetery, still widely known by its old name, Kerepesi, is one of the great cemeteries of Europe and one of the most peaceful places in Budapest. It opened in 1849 as the public cemetery of Pest and soon became the place where the nation buried its heroes, and today it covers 56 hectares of landscaped grounds, with avenues of trees, dense shrubberies and some 110 species of birds, so that it feels more like an arboretum than a graveyard. The roll of the dead reads like a history of modern Hungary. The three greatest mausoleums belong to the statesmen of the nineteenth century: Count Lajos Batthyány, the first Hungarian prime minister, executed after the failed revolution of 1848 and 1849; Ferenc Deák, the architect of the 1867 Compromise with Austria; and Lajos Kossuth, the leader of the revolution, whose massive tomb is the grandest of all. Around them lie the writers and artists who shaped Hungarian culture, among them the poets Mihály Vörösmarty, Endre Ady and Attila József, the novelist Zsigmond Móricz, the painters Mihály Munkácsy and Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka, the actresses Lujza Blaha and Mari Jászai, the film directors Miklós Jancsó and Károly Makk, and the Nobel Prize-winning writer Imre Kertész. The cemetery also holds monuments from the communist period, which make a striking contrast with the nineteenth-century tombs. Since 2016, the cemetery has been managed by the National Heritage Institute, which has restored many of the monuments and offers more than forty themed guided walks led by historians, including regular free walks at weekends, some in English. Entry is free during opening hours, which run from early morning until late afternoon or evening, depending on the month.

Why it matters: in a city where so much of the twentieth century was destroyed or rebuilt, the Fiumei Road Cemetery is an unbroken record of Hungarian history, art and memory, and its sculpture, from Romantic angels to Art Nouveau reliefs and socialist-realist monuments, is a gallery in its own right. It is also a place where Budapest's residents still come to remember, especially around All Saints' Day at the start of November, when thousands of candles are lit on the graves and the cemetery glows at dusk.

Working the visit: pick up a map at the main entrance on Fiumei út, or download one in advance, and decide which graves you want to see, because the cemetery is very large. A good first walk takes in the three great mausoleums, the artists' plots and the avenues around them in about ninety minutes. The mausoleums can be entered only on guided walks, so if you want to see inside, register for one of the free weekend walks or book a group tour with the National Heritage Institute. Wear comfortable shoes, as the paths are long and some are uneven, and behave as you would in any working cemetery: funerals and private visits continue here.

Getting there: the cemetery is in District VIII, a short walk from Keleti railway station, which is served by the M2 and M4 metro lines, and close to the Palace Quarter around the Hungarian National Museum. It is free, quiet and rarely crowded, which makes it a fine escape on a sunny afternoon, and a natural counterpart to the Dohány Street Synagogue and the Jewish Quarter. Bring water in summer, as there are few facilities inside the grounds, and allow extra time if you plan to search for specific graves, since signposting is limited away from the main avenues.