The Fiumei úti sírkert — known to everyone as Kerepesi, the great cemetery of Pest — is where Hungary buries the people it wants to remember, and it walks less like a graveyard than like a sculpture park with the volume turned down. Come on a weekday morning, when the avenues are empty and the trees do most of the talking.
Start at the Fiumei út gate, a few minutes south of Keleti station, and go straight for the three great mausoleums. Kossuth's is the largest tomb in the country, a temple to the leader of 1848; Batthyány's domed vault holds the prime minister shot in 1849; Deák's rotunda holds the man who made peace with Austria in 1867. A century of Hungarian politics lies within a few hundred metres of path.
Then find the Arcades, the colonnaded galleries where the rich families lined up their marble vaults — walk the full cool length. Beyond them the ground loosens into the artists' plots, writers and actors under old limes, half cemetery and half park. Wander there without a map, then take the same gate back to Keleti.
