A little-known late work by Bory Jenő is the memorial in the military cemetery at Polgárdi, made in 1947. It relates not to the First World War but to the devastation of the Second World War, and shows that Bory continued to receive memorial-design commissions in the post-war years.
The memorial stands in the military cemetery beside the main road at Polgárdi. Its central element is an obelisk on a base of natural stone, before which stands a full-length soldier figure. Together the statue and obelisk form a monumental yet restrained expression of remembrance.
From an art-historical perspective, the work forms an interesting transition between two periods of Bory’s memorial sculpture. While works of the 1920s and 1930s commemorated Hungarian war dead, the Polgárdi memorial was created in the new political climate after the Second World War. Nevertheless, its formal solutions retain characteristic qualities of Bory’s earlier work: the dignity of the military figure, a simple monumental structure and a tone of reverence.
The Polgárdi memorial is also among Bory Jenő’s last memorials, making it an important link in understanding the artist’s several decades of work in public memorial sculpture.