Ságvári Ágnes (szerk.): Budapest. The History of a Capital (Budapest, 1975)

Budapest in the First Twenty Years of the Council System (1950-1970)

ln 1966, the Municipal Council founded a “Pro Arte” Prize for creative artists, and in 1968 a “Pro Urbe” Prize, which is awarded to teachers, architects, physicians, and artists who have contributed to the physical and spiritual enrichment of Budapest.

The great change brought about by the Liberation is reflected in the monuments and adornments of Budapest as well. The Liberation Monument completed in 1947, the work of Zsigmond Kisfaludi Strobl, on the peak of Mount Gellért above the Danube, has become the new symbol of Budapest. The statues of Marx and Engels, at the Pest end of Margaret Bridge, near the headquarters of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party, embodies their thoughts through the eyes of a contemporary artist. Pál Pátzay’s Lenin statue at the edge of the City Park reveals the philosopher, revolutionary and statesman. The monument to the heroes of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, on Dózsa György Road, a charging Red Soldier waving a flag—the work of István Kiss—is the concrete embodiment of a recruiting poster of the time. On the Vérmező (the Field of Blood), where the Hungarian Jacobins were executed in 1795, now rises the monument to the Buda Volunteers who fought and died for the liberation of the country in 1945. Street names and plaques in honour of eminent and heroic Hungarians maintain the continuity of Budapest history.

Side by side with the historical monuments stand the creative works of contemporary artists. 840 sculptures and 170 murals adorn the streets, squares and housing estates of the capital. These include Family Sitting in the Óbuda housing estate, and the statue The Water Carrying Donkey which is the joy of the local children, on the Attila József housing estate. In one of the popular green spaces of the capital, the great park of Margaret Island, busts of great artists in the Artists’ Alley pay tribute to great minds of the past.

Also on Margaret Island, between the trees and flowers, rise the interwoven bronze flames of István Kiss’s monument commemorating the centenary of the merger of Budapest. The symbolic reliefs within the monument—the staff of the wandering journeymen, the helmet of the First World War, the peacock representing the pageantry of the Budapest Art Weeks—spell out something of Budapest’s past and present to the citizens of the future.

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