Home to some 40 statues, busts and plaques of Lenin, Marx, Béla Kun and others whose likenesses have ended up on trash heaps elsewhere in the former-socialist world, Memento Park, 10km southwest of the city centre, is a mind-blowing place to visit. Ogle the socialist realism and try to imagine that at least four of these relics were erected as recently as the late 1980s.
Newer attractions are the replicated remains of Stalin’s boots – all that was left after a crowd pulled the enormous statue down from its plinth on XIV Dózsa György út during the 1956 Uprising – and an exhibition centre in an old barracks with displays about the events of 1956 and the changes since 1989, and a documentary film with rare footage showing secret agents collecting information on ‘subversives’.
To reach this socialist Disneyland, take tram 18 from I Széll Kálmán tér in Buda, tram 47 from V Deák Ferenc tér in Pest, or tram 4 from VII Blaha Lujza tér in Pest to XI Újbuda Központ in south Buda, then board city bus 150 (25 minutes, every 20 to 30 minutes) for the park.
An easier (though more expensive) route is via the park’s direct bus (including park admission adult/child return 4900/3500Ft), which departs from outside Le Meridien Budapest Hotel on Deák Ferenc tér at 11am year-round, but at weekends only from November to March.
