Budapest Guide
The Városliget and the stadium district
Hősök tere
The enormous ceremonial plaza of Hősök tere is flanked by two galleries resembling Greek temples. At its centre is the Millenary Monument – Budapest's answer to London's Nelson's Column – consisting of a 36-metre-high column topped by the figure of the Archangel Gabriel who, according to legend, appeared to Stephen in a dream and offered him the crown of Hungary. Around the base are figures of Prince Árpád and his chieftains, who led the seven Magyar tribes into the Carpathian Basin. They look like a wild bunch; one of the chieftains, Huba, even has stag's antlers strapped to his horse's head. As a backdrop to this, a semicircular colonnade displays statues of Hungary's most illustrious leaders, from King Stephen to Kossuth.
During the brief Republic of Councils in 1919, when the country was governed by revolutionary Soviets, the square was decked out in red banners and the column enclosed in a red obelisk bearing a relief of Marx. In 1989, it was the setting for the ceremonial reburial of Imre Nagy and other murdered leaders of the 1956 Uprising (plus an empty coffin representing the "unknown insurgent") – an event which symbolized the dawning of a new era in Hungary. Today it's more likely to be filled with rollerbladers and skateboarders – for whom the smooth surface is ideal – or for hosting events such as the National Gallop or Army Day in May.
Today, three monuments mark the distance that Hungary has travelled since then. The Timewheel is the world's largest hourglass, a metal canister eight metres in diameter that rotates 180° on the last day of each year, symbolizing Hungary's accession to the European Union in 2004. Where the Stalin statue once stood, the Monument to the Uprising is a forest of oxidized columns merging into a stainless steel wedge, beside a Hungarian flag with a circle cut out, recalling the excision of the hated Soviet symbol in 1956. Beyond this, a crucifix rises over the foundations of the Virgin Mary Church that the Communists demolished in 1951.