For twelve days Imre Nagy was Prime Minister of the Hungarian revolution of 1956: he announced the withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact and asked the UN for help before Soviet tanks entered Budapest. Tried in secret, hanged in 1958, he was thrown face down into an unmarked pit. This monument, raised in 1988, stood in for his grave. Hungary took back its dead the following year.
The story
Imre Nagy was born at Kaposvár on 7 June 1896. A reforming communist, he became prime minister of Hungary during the Revolution of 1956, between 24 October and 4 November.
In twelve days he announced Hungary's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact and appealed to the United Nations. The Soviet army entered Budapest on 4 November and crushed the rising.
Arrested and tried in secret, he was hanged on 16 June 1958. His body was thrown face down into an unmarked grave, without a name or a sign: the erasure was part of the sentence.
In 1988 the Hungarian League for Human Rights raised this monument to him at Père-Lachaise — a symbolic grave, for want of access to the real one.
On 16 June 1989, thirty-one years to the day after the hanging, he was rehabilitated and reburied with full honours in Budapest before two hundred thousand people. The ceremony marked the beginning of the end of the regime. A plaque added here announces it: “Since 16 June 1989 the free soil of Hungary has received the mortal remains of Imre Nagy.”
The grave
A monument of stone, bronze and aluminium, raised in 1988 by the Hungarian League for Human Rights, with a bronze bas-relief bearing his portrait and inscriptions in both French and Hungarian. The main text states the intention: “May this French soil be the symbolic grave of Imre Nagy, Prime Minister of the Hungarian Republic, who had the courage to die for the ideals of democracy and the independence of his country.” A plaque added since closes the story: “Since 16 June 1989, the free soil of Hungary holds the mortal remains of Imre Nagy.” The cenotaph stayed, and it tells of its own expiry.
On site, do not miss
The two texts that answer each other: the dedication of 1988 that offers a symbolic grave, and the plaque announcing that Hungary took back its dead.
Visitors' questions
Where is Imre Nagy's monument?
In Division 44, chemin du Quinconce, second row — the Division of Yves Montand and Simone Signoret, Yvette Chauviré and Manu Dibango. It is a cenotaph: the body has been in Budapest since 1989.
Yves Montand and Simone SignoretWhy a symbolic grave in Paris?
Because in 1988, under the communist regime, his real burial place was an unmarked pit that no one could visit. The Hungarian League for Human Rights raised this monument to give him a place, for want of a tomb.
General AndranikWhat happened to his body?
Hanged on 16 June 1958, he was thrown face down into an unmarked grave. He was rehabilitated and solemnly reburied in Budapest on 16 June 1989, thirty-one years to the day after his execution.
Ettore BugattiWhat was his role in 1956?
Prime minister during the twelve days of the Hungarian Revolution, he announced the withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact and appealed to the UN for help. The Soviet army crushed the uprising on 4 November 1956.
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