Hungary The Legacy of the HUPR in Budapest

[Gordon Craig]

The guide books will direct you to Statue Park to see what happened to the large monuments etc that once existed throughout Budapest in the time of the HUPR. This could make you believe that there is nothing left in the city of the HUPR worth visiting once you have seen Statue Park. I already proved that was wrong in my thread on Kerepesi Cemetary but you don't have to visit a cemetary to see that there remains a number of artifacts in Budapest still connected to the HUPR. Some obviously so, some not so obviously. Lets take a short tour of a few places I visited on the May Day weekend.

Stop #1-Facade of the Former Trade Union Building - The sculpture on the facade of the former Trades Union Congress building is a rare example of the "socialist modernism" style that briely flourished between the end of WWII and the imposition of Stalinist Socialist Realism in the early 1950s. The title of the piece is "Construction Workers" by sculptor Istv?n T?r and was completed in 1949. The piece brough him condemnation for something called "formalist deviation" whatever that is? The building has been closed and empty for some time but looks considerably younger than I would have expected.

Here is a picture of the building which is located on the corner of D?zsa Gy?rgy ?t and V?rosligeti fasor although the scupture faces V?rosligeti fasor.

Edited May 4, 2009 by Gordon Craig

[Gordon Craig]

A closer view of the sculpture. Some recurring themes here. Equality of gender with women working right along side the men and doing the same hard physical labour. There are lots of period pictures to support the women doing the hard labour bit.

Edited May 4, 2009 by Gordon Craig

[Gordon Craig]

The second stop is the beginning if the number 75 trolley bus line at Pusk?s Ferenc Stadium. If you have been to Budapest you will know that BKV buses (Budapest Transportation System) are normally green and blue. The trolley buses however are all painted communist red. The routes are all numbered to memorialize Joseph Stalin. The trolley system was inaugurated in 1949 when Stalin was 70. The Hungarian leaders sought to honour Stalin by numbering the first route #70. As trolley lines were added they were numbered according to how old Stalin was that year. Although Stalin died in 1953 the last line in the system, number 83, was launched in 1963 when Stalin would have been 83. BKV has a program to replace the existing trolley buses and the new buses are all blue and green.

Here is a line of buses at the stadium.

[Gordon Craig]

#75 trolley bus.

[Gordon Craig]

If you get on the bus in the previous picture and ride it for three stops you will come to our stop #3. Just off Ifujs?gi utja, which is on the opposite side of the Pusk?s Ferenc Stadium from where we caught the #75 trolley bus, is the "Avenue of Youth" statue park. It consists of 18 larger than life sculptures located in the centre of a red cinder track. Nine lining each side of the long straight section of the track. Each sculputure is separated by a large wall. They depict youth involved in study, sporting activities and fighting practice. They date from the 1950s.

Here is a view of one side of the track.

[Gordon Craig]

A picture of yours truly with one of the sculptures to give you some perspective of size.

Regards,

Gordon

Edited May 4, 2009 by Gordon Craig

[hunyadi]

Nice tour book Gordon - of course you forgot to mention that Pusk?s Ferenc Stadium used to be called Nepstadion - or "People's Stadium" and was intended to be an Olympic venue. Though I cant remember the street if you look out on the right side of the #24 Tram there was another great facade of a building with the Soivet Surrealism. The images of the HUPR are still very evident and prominent in Vac and Dunaujvaros if you get the chance to go there.

[Gordon Craig]

Charles,

You are of course correct that I did not mention the former name of the stadium. Thanks for mentioning that. Been to Vac but didn't see much that reminded me of the HUPR. It is certainly close enough to Budapest to go back and see what I missed. Nice little town to visit on a Sunday.

As for Dunaujvaros (originally called Sztalinvaros) I have not been there but perhaps I can squeeze to into my schedule before I leave. Be nice to have some picture of the city to go along with my Sztalinvaros awards.

Regards,

Gordon

[hunyadi]

Much of the HUPR art and architecture in Vac is situated near the bus station. Much of it from the early 1960's by the style. As for Stalinvaros you must simply get into the center of town. Dunaujvaros is still a huge bastion of the Socialist mindset. There are also more Trabants and Ladas there than you can shake a stick at...

[Glenn R]

I'm going to Budapest again next week. We went 4 years ago and fell in love with the place.

I enjoyed the Statue Park but it did seem like it had all been dumped as far away from the city as possible.

Just seemed like a patch of waste ground by the side of the road. It's currently raining and cold here so am

looking forward to sitting under the trees on Margit Sziget with a good book watching the people go by!

[hunyadi]

Glenn - as you may already know - there are some fair to midland militaria shops nearby.... :rolleyes:

[Glenn R]

Glenn - as you may already know - there are some fair to midland militaria shops nearby....

Yes, believe me they are on the list for a re-visit! If there's anything you're looking for in particular let me know.