Oradea – Rhédey Mausoleum

This mausoleum is located within the grounds of Oradea Zoo and for a while it was used to keep the animals in, which isn’t perhaps ideal in terms of historic integrity and respect for the dead.

Before the site was used as a zoo, it was a public garden and the mausoleum was constructed in 1804. The site fell into disrepair at a couple of times, being vandalised in 1830 (just before the tomb was completed and brought into use, primarily as the person to be buried there wasn’t dead yet) and in 1912 the mausoleum was broken into with items stolen and the bones scattered.

After a period of the zoo’s collection of deer using the mausoleum as their winter quarters, it was decided that the site should be cleaned up and treated more respectfully. It was repaired in 2012 and is now not used by any of the zoo’s animals…..

The tomb is of Rhédey Lajos, who stated in his will that he wanted to be laid to rest in Oradea. Oradea was formerly part of Hungary and Lajos was a nobleman and politician from the country who lived between 1761 and 1831.

There’s an information board outside the mausoleum, but unfortunately the information on it is only in Romanian and Hungarian.