The New Public Cemetery is one of the most important symbolic sites in post-Second World War history, a place of national remembrance and mourning, and a reminder of the 1956 Revolution. The cemetery was opened in 1886. It is the largest cemetery in Hungary, containing 301 plot. The last numbered plot is the most famous, and together with the adjacent plots 298 and 300 and the Small Prison nearby (where executions took place), it constitutes the National Park of Mourning.
Use of plot 298 began in 1944, when paupers were buried here. Following the Second World War it was used to bury those who had died in Kozma utca prison or been executed, although it continued to also serve as a burial place for the poor and needy until 1952. The population of plot 298 is extremely varied. In addition to those who received a pauper's funeral, the main war criminals sentenced to death in trials by the people's courts also lie here, as well as people sentenced to death for political reasons in various unlawful and show trials during the dictatorship, also including Communists who were executed as a result of state-party infighting. Many of the political prisoners died of physical abuse.
The histories of the plots 301 and 298 are closely bound to each other, because when plot 298 became full in 1952, people executed in Budapest and those who died in prison in the capital, the prison hospital and in the internment camp in Kistarcsa were buried in plot 301. These were mainly political victims, but some were common criminals. Many political prisoners (particularly after 1956) were charged with common crimes and surviving documents of the oppressive system often made it very difficult to authentically reconstruct criminal procedures and the evaluation of the actual activities of the prosecuted persons.
The vast majority of those lying in plot 301 are undoubtedly victims of the reprisals that followed the 1956 Revolution, including iconic figures of the fight for freedom such as the legendary commanders of the armed fighters in Corvin köz and Tűzoltó utca, László Iván Kovács and István Angyal, as well as Ilona Tóth, Árpád Brusznyai and Péter Mansfeld. Prime Minister Imre Nagy was buried here and Defence Minister Pál Maléter. The body of Imre Nagy was first buried at the site where he was executed, in the courtyard of the Small Prison, in 1958. Later it was secretly moved and buried under a pseudonym in 1961, in row 23 of plot 301. 
The role of plot 301 in collective memory is complicated by the fact that between1959 and 1960 former gendarmes were buried here, who had been executed for their actions prior to 1945. Like plot 298, it would be impossible to draw up an exhaustive list of the people buried in plot 301, because in many cases it is impossible to assign names to the graves, and identifications are unpredictable due to unreliable records.
More than two hundred of the graves of those who were executed or died in prison in the 1950s can be found in other plots, while many of the people executed for their role in the 1956 Revolution were buried in plots 233 and 235. Freedom fighters who had been laid to rest in undignified circumstances in plot 233 were moved to plot 300 in 2014, including two well-known 56ers, József Dudás and János Szabó, the commander of the fighters in Széna tér, also known as 'Uncle Szabó'.
The plots became the focus of remembrance policy disputes during the regime change after 1989. The 301 individually carved grave posts in plot 301 were placed there in 1989. The grave posts were installed by members of the art group INCONNU, who were at the forefront of efforts to promote the remembrance of 1956. The radical opposition artists made a Pro Patria grave-post in spring 1988, which they wanted to erect in plot 301 on 16 June; but it was confiscated by the police. The grave-post was later returned, and INCONNU erected it on 4 November 1988, the anniversary of the defeat of the revolution. Nothing could better illustrate the disintegration of the party-state than the fact that in spring the following year they returned the grave-posts to the cemetery in a lorry without any permit whatsoever, while the preparations for the official state celebrations were in full swing, and they remain there in the same pattern to this day.
The use of plot 300 started in 1989 amidst the political changes. Four of those reburied and laid in state in Hősök tere (Heroes' Square) on 16th June, four were granted honorary graves here: Miklós Gimes, Pál Maléter, József Szilágyi and Géza Losonczy who died in prison in unclear circumstances. Later, people involved with the 1956 Revolution were moved here not just from other plots, but also from other cemeteries. The powerful monument created by György Jovánovics is located here. Its foundation stone was laid on the day of Imre Nagy's burial.
Renovated for the 25th anniversary of the reburial of Imre Nagy and his fellow martyrs on 16th June 2014, the entire grounds of the National Park of Mourning, including Jovánovics’s work, were renovated. Managed by the National Heritage Institute, the Visitor Centre was completed in the second phase. Built by Béla Markó, the building was organically incorporated into the fabric of the grounds, with its ‘hidden box’ structure overgrown with plants. The building houses an exhibition space to present the history of the plots and the persons buried there. The Visitor Centre was built with support from the Prime Minister’s Office and content development for the Centre was accomplished under the István Angyal Programme of the Memorial Committee.

The New Public Cemetery is one of the most important symbolic sites in post-Second World War history, a place of national remembrance and mourning, and a reminder of the 1956 Revolution. The cemetery was opened in 1886. It is the largest cemetery in Hungary, containing 301 plot. The last numbered plot is the most famous, and together with the adjacent plots 298 and 300 and the Small Prison nearby (where executions took place), it constitutes the National Park of Mourning.
Use of plot 298 began in 1944, when paupers were buried here. Following the Second World War it was used to bury those who had died in Kozma utca prison or been executed, although it continued to also serve as a burial place for the poor and needy until 1952. The population of plot 298 is extremely varied. In addition to those who received a pauper's funeral, the main war criminals sentenced to death in trials by the people's courts also lie here, as well as people sentenced to death for political reasons in various unlawful and show trials during the dictatorship, also including Communists who were executed as a result of state-party infighting. Many of the political prisoners died of physical abuse.
The histories of the plots 301 and 298 are closely bound to each other, because when plot 298 became full in 1952, people executed in Budapest and those who died in prison in the capital, the prison hospital and in the internment camp in Kistarcsa were buried in plot 301. These were mainly political victims, but some were common criminals. Many political prisoners (particularly after 1956) were charged with common crimes and surviving documents of the oppressive system often made it very difficult to authentically reconstruct criminal procedures and the evaluation of the actual activities of the prosecuted persons.
The vast majority of those lying in plot 301 are undoubtedly victims of the reprisals that followed the 1956 Revolution, including iconic figures of the fight for freedom such as the legendary commanders of the armed fighters in Corvin köz and Tűzoltó utca, László Iván Kovács and István Angyal, as well as Ilona Tóth, Árpád Brusznyai and Péter Mansfeld. Prime Minister Imre Nagy was buried here and Defence Minister Pál Maléter. The body of Imre Nagy was first buried at the site where he was executed, in the courtyard of the Small Prison, in 1958. Later it was secretly moved and buried under a pseudonym in 1961, in row 23 of plot 301. 
The role of plot 301 in collective memory is complicated by the fact that between1959 and 1960 former gendarmes were buried here, who had been executed for their actions prior to 1945. Like plot 298, it would be impossible to draw up an exhaustive list of the people buried in plot 301, because in many cases it is impossible to assign names to the graves, and identifications are unpredictable due to unreliable records.
More than two hundred of the graves of those who were executed or died in prison in the 1950s can be found in other plots, while many of the people executed for their role in the 1956 Revolution were buried in plots 233 and 235. Freedom fighters who had been laid to rest in undignified circumstances in plot 233 were moved to plot 300 in 2014, including two well-known 56ers, József Dudás and János Szabó, the commander of the fighters in Széna tér, also known as 'Uncle Szabó'.
The plots became the focus of remembrance policy disputes during the regime change after 1989. The 301 individually carved grave posts in plot 301 were placed there in 1989. The grave posts were installed by members of the art group INCONNU, who were at the forefront of efforts to promote the remembrance of 1956. The radical opposition artists made a Pro Patria grave-post in spring 1988, which they wanted to erect in plot 301 on 16 June; but it was confiscated by the police. The grave-post was later returned, and INCONNU erected it on 4 November 1988, the anniversary of the defeat of the revolution. Nothing could better illustrate the disintegration of the party-state than the fact that in spring the following year they returned the grave-posts to the cemetery in a lorry without any permit whatsoever, while the preparations for the official state celebrations were in full swing, and they remain there in the same pattern to this day.
The use of plot 300 started in 1989 amidst the political changes. Four of those reburied and laid in state in Hősök tere (Heroes' Square) on 16th June, four were granted honorary graves here: Miklós Gimes, Pál Maléter, József Szilágyi and Géza Losonczy who died in prison in unclear circumstances. Later, people involved with the 1956 Revolution were moved here not just from other plots, but also from other cemeteries. The powerful monument created by György Jovánovics is located here. Its foundation stone was laid on the day of Imre Nagy's burial.
Renovated for the 25th anniversary of the reburial of Imre Nagy and his fellow martyrs on 16th June 2014, the entire grounds of the National Park of Mourning, including Jovánovics’s work, were renovated. Managed by the National Heritage Institute, the Visitor Centre was completed in the second phase. Built by Béla Markó, the building was organically incorporated into the fabric of the grounds, with its ‘hidden box’ structure overgrown with plants. The building houses an exhibition space to present the history of the plots and the persons buried there. The Visitor Centre was built with support from the Prime Minister’s Office and content development for the Centre was accomplished under the István Angyal Programme of the Memorial Committee.