John Lennon Memorial Column in Kazincbarcika

The John Lennon memorial column in Kazincbarcika stands at the corner of Fő tér and Mátyás király út. A teacher and pupils first raised a Lennon peace column in 1986 in Jubileumi park; vandals destroyed it. Art teacher Gabriella Kovács made the renewed column, unveiled on Lennon's birthday, 9 October 2019.

A school's peace memorial, 1986

The column began in a classroom. In 1986 a teacher and pupils at the Kertváros II primary school in Kazincbarcika wanted to put up something for peace, and to them John Lennon stood for exactly that. Their column went up beside a path near the boating lake in Jubileumi park. It did not last: vandals wrecked it, and today only photographs record what it looked like.

Rebuilt for Lennon's birthday

Local councillor György Pétervári pushed for a new one, and the town council supported it. The renewal was carried out by Gabriella Kovács, who teaches art at the Deák Ferenc vocational school and art gymnasium in nearby Ózd. The new column is not an exact copy. It keeps the dove and the metal ball that stands for the globe, in wood and iron, and adds a plaque with a Hungarian line from Imagine. Hungary's public-art database Köztérkép dates the work to 2017 and lists its maker as unknown, but the local report on the unveiling names Kovács.

The column was unveiled on 9 October 2019, which would have been Lennon's 79th birthday, during the town's civil society week. Gábor Kerek, head of the Kodály Zoltán art school, spoke about Lennon and the Beatles, and the Hangfogó Band played.

Part of the new main square

The renewal coincided with the redevelopment of Fő tér, and the column was unveiled on the renovated square in October 2019. Not everyone understood it. Barcikai Históriás, a local history site, recalls residents asking what Lennon had to do with Kazincbarcika, and gives the plain answer: nothing. The column remembers a school's 1986 wish for peace, not a visit or a family link.

On Fő tér in 2024

Look for it at the Mátyás király út corner of Fő tér, not in Jubileumi park, where the first column stood. It is in open public space. A 2023 travel piece on the town listed the mainly wooden Lennon column among its public statues, and twelve photos added to the Köztérkép public-art database on 24 April 2024 show it still standing on the corner.