Hungary celebrated a day of mourning on Saturday to mark the 61st anniversary of the crushing of the 1956 revolution and freedom-fight.
Hungary’s flag was raised and then lowered to half-mast with military honours in front of Parliament to mark the occasion which is held on November 4th each year.
President János Áder, Chief of Staff Tibor Benkő, members of the foreign diplomatic and military attaché corps, representatives of Hungary’s military and political parties as well as state officials were present at the ceremony in Kossuth Square.
The main commemoration ceremony was held at the 1956 memorial in Budapest’s Hargita Square. In the evening, a concert was held in St Stephen’s Basilica in memory of the martyrs of 1956.
Mourners were invited to light candles in memory of the victims of the revolution at the Heroes’ Wall next to the House of Terror museum.
A protocol-free commemoration was also held throughout the day at plot 301 of the Rákoskeresztúr Cemetery, where victims of the Soviet retaliation after the revolution are buried in unmarked graves.