Statue Park Parks, Gardens & Cemeteries
Communist-Era StatuesBudapest,
1223
Hungary
+36 1 424 7500
+36 1 337 5050
http://www.szoborpark.hu


Overview
Statues from the Communism era were all brought to this park after the era came to an end. The park is located a little away from the city and makes for an interesting outing to catch a glimpse of the communist history of Hungary. When you buy your ticket, be sure to also purchase the very well-researched and extremely informative guide-book. Without it the meaning and history of the statues will be lost to you. Guided tours are also offered throughout the week, check the website for details.
I visited the Statue Park in the first week of October. There are two options for getting there if you don't have a car. The first is taking a special bus from the city that goes straight to the Park. I forget where it departs from, but your guide books will tell you. At any rate, the guidebook said there's be two--one in the morning and one in the afternoon. In reality, when I was there, there was only the morning bus. So, I wound up taking the trus public transport route, which was cheaper and allowed me to see more of the city. You take a tram to the end of the line and then take a bus to the park. This works out to be cheaper than the direct bus, but, they were doing contruction on a bridge and so there were less frequent trips and it took longer on the detour. There's a lot of constuction oging on in Budapest in general, so don't be too upset if things you meant to see are being renovated.
My husband and I visited the Statue Park during a recent trip to Budapest and enjoyed the experience immensely. It's in an out of the way place but easy to reach on Budapest's excellent public transportation system. It's a collection of public art (statues) from the Socialist era that have been removed from their original location and preserved here. The similarity to religious art is striking when one view's a substantial collection in one place, as is done here. Many of the statues are stunning either due to sheer size or to artistic merit. The park is also a history lesson with a useful brochure in English that explains the historical and cultural context of the works. It's a pleasant place that seems to be very lightly visited, a private rather than publicly-financed museum and it deserves support for preserving the works of some fine artists that had to work within the ideology of that era. The Bela Kun memorial alone is worth the bus trip. Highly recommended.



