Subscribe to our social channels to get the latest news about Hungary!
Emotional Hungarian story: beyond walls
Change language:
Cemeteries help us honour the dead, but also provide a link for the living. Hungarian cemeteries are living, breathing places of rest. Shaded by rows of oak and poplar trees, they form not only the place of peaceful interment for hundreds, but one of contemplation and reflection for anyone seeking solace and solitude.
At Debrecen’s Köztemeto cemetery, graves are dutifully tended. Should the neighbouring one be unkempt, it will be weeded and a fresh or plastic flower or two placed in the empty vase.
Sometimes, the dead can influence the lives of the living.
Anna had spent much of her childhood in the L-shaped house built by her grandfather on a nearby street. She lived with her adoptive parents in one half, and the other was home to her uncle, his wife and their children. A single child, Anna felt bored and lonely. Yet paranoia and arguments had led to a brick wall being built across the communal garden to separate the families.
Anna never stopped admiring her older cousin, Kata, to whom she’d been forbidden to talk. She dreamed of playing together. Instead, they glanced furtively at each other in silence.