Budapest Guide
Várhegy and central Buda
Bem tér
Bem tér is named after the Polish general Joseph Bem, who fought for the Hungarians in the War of Independence, and was revered by his men as "Father". A statue of Bem with his arm in a sling recalls him leading them into battle at Piski, crying "I shall recapture the bridge or die! Forward Hungarians! If we do not have the bridge we do not have the country." Traditionally a site for demonstrations, it was here that the crowds assembled prior to marching on Parliament at the beginning of the 1956 Uprising. In the northwest corner, at the junction of Frankel Leó utca, stands a Budapest institution, the Bambi – one of the few unreformed café-bars that retains its 1970s furnishing and fierce waitresses.