Szilágyi Memorial on Tarajka

Dezső Szilágyi (Nagyvárad, April 1, 1840 – Budapest, July 30, 1901, lawyer, politician, Minister of Justice, Member of Parliament, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences) was a great patron of tourism in the Tatra Mountains. He himself was often a guest in Tátrafüred. The Hungarian Carpathian Association (MKE), which was the first tourist club in Hungary and the seventh in the world, decided, at the suggestion of its president Aurél Münnich, to erect a worthy memorial to Dezső Szilágyi, who popularized the Tatra Mountains. In 1904, a lookout tower made of stone and iron was built in Tarajka according to the design of Gedeon Majunke, born in Szepesszombat, on which a relief portrait of Dezső Szilágyi was placed. The portrait was made by sculptor János Istók. The monument was completed at a cost of 7,200 crowns, of which 5,600 crowns went to the tower, while 1,600 crowns went to the relief. Most of the money came from donations. Ignác Darányi, the then Minister of Agriculture, supported the works with 2,000 (!) crowns. ; The Szilágyi Monument was inaugurated on August 8, 1904. The tower, which stands at a height of nearly 1,280 meters, offered a picturesque view of the Tarpatak Valley. Over time, the building became the Pantheon of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and in 1932 the memorial plaques of Miklós Fischer, then in 1937 the senior dr. Miklós Szontagh, junior dr. Mihály Guhr and Ferenc Dénes were placed here, all of whom were popularizers of tourism in the Tatra Mountains. ; The II. After World War II, the relief was destroyed and the memorial plaques were torn down, but the lookout tower can still be found today in an area that has since been heavily overgrown with trees. The location of the torn relief is still visible on the side of the lookout tower.