Gellért Hill & Tabán - Budapest - page 149

WORTH A DETOUR
SOUTH BUDA SIGHTS

Memento Park
Home to more than 40 statues, busts and plaques of Lenin, Marx, Béla Kun and oth-
ers whose likenesses have ended up on trash heaps elsewhere in the former-socialist
world, Memento Park ( GOOGLE MAP ; 1-424 7500; www.mementopark.hu ; XXII Balatoni út 16;
adult/student 1500/1000Ft; 10am-dusk; 150) , 10km southwest of the city centre, is truly
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; a few of them, including
a memorial of Béla Kun in a crowd by fence-sitting sculptor Imre Varga were still in
place when one of us moved to Budapest in early 1992. Also here are the replicated re-
mains 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). An exhibition
centre in an old barracks has displays on the events of 1956 and the changes since
1989, and a documentary film with rare footage of secret agents collecting informa-
tion on 'subversives'.
To reach this socialist Disneyland, take the M4 to Kelenföld pályaudvar and then bus
101 or 150 (25 minutes, every 20 to 30 minutes) to Budatétény vasútállomás (Cam-
ponia) and the park. An easier - though more expensive - way to go is via the direct
park bus ( GOOGLE MAP ; adult/child return incl park admission 4900/3500Ft; 11am daily Apr-Oct,
Sat-Mon Nov-Mar) , which departs from in front of Le Meridien Budapest hotel on V Deák
Ferenc tér.

Nagytétény Castle Museum
Housed in a baroque mansion in deepest south Buda, the Nagytétény Castle Mu-
seum (Nagytétényi Kastélymúzeum; GOOGLE MAP ; 1-207 0005; www.nagytetenyi.hu ; XXII
Kastélypark utca 9-11; adult/child 800/400Ft; 10am-6pm Tue-Sun Apr-Dec, to 4pm Fri-Sun Jan & Feb, to
6pm Thu-Sun Mar; 33 from XI Móricz Zsigmond körtér in south Buda) , a branch of the Museum of
Applied Arts, traces the development of European furniture - from Gothic (1450) to
Biedermeier styles (1850) - with some 300 items on display in more than two dozen
rooms.

Palace of Wonders
Subtitled the Centre of Scientific Wonder, the Palace of Wonders (Csodák Palotája;
GOOGLE MAP ; 06 30 210 5569; www.csopa.hu ; Campona Shopping Mall, II Nagytétényi út 37-43; adult/
student & child 2200/1700Ft;

33 from XI Móricz Zsigmond körtér in south Buda) is a 10am-8pm ; ;