The day of the dead

The summer colony Mátyásföld was founded in 1887, at that time still beyond the boundaries of Budapest, by the upper middle class cottage owner’s association of the city. The colony became part of Budapest only in 1950. On the lands south of the settlement a sports airport was established, which from 1920 – when the peace treaty forbade Hungary to develop the army air service – was transformed into a secret military airport.



The Neo-Gothic church of the colony was consecreated in 1905 in honor of Saint Joseph. In its garden, at the statue of Jesus a votive table was offered on 18 June 1944, when the advancement of the Red Army crossed the Soviet border. In front of the table on every 2 November candles are lit in memory of the dead.



The Red Army reached Mátyásföld in November 1944. The military airport became the central airbase of the Soviet army: the arrested Prime Minister of the fallen revolution of 1956 Imre Nagy was for example deported from here to the Soviet staff in Snagov. The military zone and the housing estate built around it for thousands of its officers and employees just a hundred meters from the national road towards the Ukraine, became the headquarters of the Soviet army in Budapest.


In 1991, after the withdrawal of the Soviet army from Hungary several hundreds of former Soviet officers and civil employees remained in Mátyásföld together with their families. They made efforts for a while to maintain the Russian school, and some officer’s wives even established an excellent Georgian restaurant. But then all this closed. Nowadays only the extra soft Hungarian accent of some extra kind saleswomen evinces their local presence. And the candles which they light in front of the statue of Jesus on every 2 November in memory of the dead.