Böhönye: Remembrance and Church-Building History

Böhönye brings together remembrance of the dead of the Second World War and a distinctive history of church building. At the military cemetery, granite crosses, inscribed plaques and a bilingual monument give concrete form to remembrance. The Reformed church has a blue-painted ceiling decorated with golden-yellow stars. In western Böhönye stands the Church of St. Elijah, also known as the Festetics Chapel, whose construction history dates back to the 1760s.

Remembrance on the southern edge of the village

The military cemetery lies on the southern edge of Böhönye, at the intersection of Main Roads No. 61 and No. 68. It is the Volksbund’s collection and burial cemetery in Somogy County; more than 2,000 dead from the Second World War found their final resting place there.

At the far end, granite crosses mark the graves. Two names of people buried there appear on each side of the crosses; the graves of unknown war dead are also marked with crosses. Granite plaques at the memorial and along the cemetery path bear the names of soldiers whose remains can no longer be recovered.

At the centre are a flower bed and a stone monument with a bilingual inscription. The figure of more than 2,000 conveys the scale of the cemetery. The crosses and plaques also draw attention to individual graves and names; the bilingual monument adds a shared form of remembrance to these individual markers. The military cemetery opened to the public on 2 October 1993.

Churches with distinct building histories

Böhönye’s Reformed Church stands set back from the settlement’s main road, within a block of houses. In 1787, Festetics Lajos initiated and funded the construction of a stone church for the local Reformed community. Its ceiling is painted blue and decorated with golden-yellow stars. Here, a feature of the building’s space sits alongside a striking detail of its design.

The Church of St. Elijah, also known as the Festetics Chapel, is located in western Böhönye, on the grounds of the former Illés-major estate. Between 1760 and 1765, the Festetics family had a Baroque chapel built there in honour of the Prophet Elijah. The chapel is no longer in use. The clearest points of comparison are its construction period and purpose: the chapel is dedicated to Elijah, while the stone church was built for the local Reformed community.

Choose the right travel focus

When choosing a holiday rental, it helps to consider which themes you would like to include in your travel plans. Böhönye focuses on remembrance and church-building history. The wider destination of Lake Balaton – South adds water tourism as another regional focus. On its stretch in Somogy County, the Dráva active tourism network includes stops for water tourism. If you would like to take this regional water perspective into account alongside historic sites, you can weigh up both interests at their respective scales.

Discover more destinations:

Balatonmariafürdö, Balatonszentgyörgy, Nagyszakácsi, Varászló, Vörs, Balatonújlak, Marcali, Kelevíz

Back to the main travel overview: Marcali.