Heroes' Square (Budapest)

Brief information

Heroes' Square is arranged as the ceremonial finale of Andrássy Avenue: the urban axis here comes up against the monument, and beyond the square begins Városliget Park. The place therefore reads not as an empty space between buildings, but as a stage where movement along the avenue ends in an image of Hungarian history.

The square was laid out for the celebration of Hungary's millennium in 1896, and this date explains its scale and set of symbols. The central column, the leaders of the Magyar tribes, the historical figures in the colonnades, and the memorial slab work together: the square shows not a single episode, but a long line from the legend of the country's founding to the memory of the soldiers of the two world wars. The two neoclassical buildings on the sides, the Museum of Fine Arts and the Műcsarnok, frame this composition like austere side wings.

What to notice right away

It is worth comparing the three levels of the central monument. At the top stands the archangel Gabriel on a globe with King Stephen's crown and the double apostolic cross: the religious legend is placed above the entire square. Below, at the pedestal, are the equestrian sculptures of the leaders of the seven Magyar tribes headed by Árpád; here history is shown as the movement of a people toward the Danube.

Behind the column, two semicircular colonnades open out. Between their columns stand bronze figures of rulers and statesmen, while above are allegories of Labor and Prosperity, War and Peace, Wisdom and Glory. In this way the square builds an order for the gaze: from the heavenly sign to the tribal leaders, then to state figures and generalized ideas. In front of the column lies a stone slab dedicated to the soldiers of the two world wars; it changes the reading of the center by adding a later memory of the fallen to the jubilee composition.