Szatmárcseke Cemetery

Top choice in Northern Hungary


This famous cemetery in the village of Szatmárcseke has 1200 grave markers resembling up-ended prows that are unique in Hungary. Their notches and grooves represent a complicated language detailing marital status, social position and so on. It's a mystery as to how the tradition (still carried on today) began, but scholars generally agree it’s not Finno-Ugric (ancestral Hungarian).

One of the stone markers in the cemetery is that of native son Ferenc Kölcsey (1790–1838), who wrote the lyrics to Himnusz, the Hungarian national anthem.