Budapest Guide
Lipótváros and Újlipótváros
Szabadság tér
For over a century, Lipótváros was dominated by a gigantic barracks where scores of Hungarians were imprisoned or executed, until this symbol of Habsburg tyranny was demolished in 1897 and the site redeveloped as Szabadság tér (Liberty Square). Invested with significance from the outset, it became a kind of record of the vicissitudes of modern Hungarian history, where each regime added or removed monuments, according to their political complexion. For an excellent vantage point from which to admire the square's buildings, head to the café pavilion in the centre of the square.
From 1921 to 1945, the square was dominated by the Monument to Hungarian Grief – consisting of a flag at half mast and four statues called North, South, East and West – in protest at the 1920 Treaty of Trianon, which awarded two-thirds of Hungary's territory and a third of its Magyar population to the "Successor States" of Romania, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. After World War II, this was replaced by a Soviet Army Memorial commemorating the liberation of Budapest from the Nazis, with bas-reliefs of Red Army troops and tanks advancing on Ferenciek tere and Parliament. Today, the Soviet obelisk is fenced off to protect it from vandalism by right-wing nationalists, who periodically erect a tent nearby, emblazoned with "Give us back our flag!", coyly neglecting to mention the revanchist impulse behind the original monument.
Ironically, the Soviet memorial and the protest tent stand near the former headquarters of the Fascist Arrow Cross, and the US Embassy (now cordoned off for security); for fifteen years, the latter sheltered Cardinal Mindszenty, the Primate of Hungary's Catholic Church, in the aftermath of the 1956 Uprising. Later, however, the US became embarrassed by his presence, as did the Vatican, which finally persuaded him to leave for Austria in 1971. Nearby is a statue of General Harry Bandholtz of the US army, who intervened with a dogwhip to stop Romanian troops from looting the Hungarian National Museum in 1919. The statue was erected in the 1930s, removed after World War II, and reinstated by the Communists prior to President George Bush's visit in 1989.