Budapest: A Critical Guide

A Column in Museum Gardens (VIII. Múzeum kert)

To the left of the National Museum, very near the building, there is a slender column, now encircled by bushes. That was the surprising present from Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, who visited Hungarian regent Miklós Horthy. The column is from the Forum Romanum... There were so many there. Nobody missed that single, inconspicuous one.

Eugene of Savoye on his horse (in front of Royal Palace, facing Pest)

The City of Pest wanted the put Emperor Francis Joseph here in around 1900, but he declined it, saying that he never wanted to be shown on a horse, being no soldier. Then rumour came that there was this statue, ordered by the city of Zenta (the general completed the liberation of Hungary from the Turks there, in 1697), but they were unable to pay it. So the city acquired it, not relly minding that he allegedly did not exactly liked Hungarians.

The Knight and his Page (Between the Palace and residential part, near the wall towards Buda) In 1974 archaeologists found two dozen fragmented statues on dignitaries of the 14^th century - it was the celebrated "Gothic Statue Find", on display ever since in the Budapest Historical Museum, nearby. This is how they could have looked when they were new.

Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria, Queen of Hungary(In the foyer of Museum of Fine Arts)

Originally in the colonnade on Heroes' Square. Removed, together wit the other four Hapsburgs, in 1918, put back in 1920, removed again in 1945, found in a warehouse and re-erected in 2002.

András Hadik (corner of I. Szentháromság utca and Úri utca)

"The most hussar of the hussars", the favourite soldier of Empress Maria Theresa. In October 1757 with a small unit he sieged Berlin, and made it pay a ransom. He also demanded 50 pairs of gloves for the Empress. (They were found all left-handed at closer inpection, back in Vienna!) For decades would be engineers came here before every exam, to touch the testicles (of the horse), from the nearby student hostel...

The Very First Kossuth Statue In the timpanon of Inter-Európa Bank. (V. Szabadásg tér 15.)

The émigré freedom fighter an statesman Lajos Kossuth (1802-1894) could not have a statue in a public space, until his great opponent, Emperor Francis Joseph I was around - so it was erected in a private space, in 1908.

Baron Podmaniczky and the Stolen Lance of Pallas Athene (V. Podmaniczky tér)

The eccentric 19th-century campaigner for new urban projects holds a statue of Pallas Athene that has become the symbol of the conservationists. Traditionally she has a lance in her hand. Not in the hand of this one... It is a complicated hint at the subtitle of a monthly television programme: "The Lance Is Sometimes Stolen From the Hand of Pallas Athene, City Defender".

General Bandholtz (V. Szabadság tér, near the US Embassy)

As the commander of the tiny American peace-keeping force in Budapest in 1919, he defended the treasures of the National Museum, when the Romanian army wanted to "loot" it. He "sealed" the museum main gate, with the only seal he was at his disposal: "United States Customs Office". Luckily, the Romanian officers did not speak English then.

Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish Diplomat (II. Szilágyi Erzsébet fasor, corner of Küküllő utca.)

He saved the lives of thousands of Jews in 1944/45, then kidnapped and killed by the Soviets, in 1948 or later. This is his second monument, the first (in Pest) was stolen by unknown agents during the night before it was going to be unveiled, in 1947.

The Monument in Parcel 301 ( Rákoskeresztúr Cemetery) A highly original landmark, erected in the early 1990s, in memory of the killed martyrs of the 1956 uprising. The central part is a slab of stone , 1956 millimeters high. (design by György Jovánovics, sculptor and artist.)