Szatmári Gizella: Signs of Remembrance - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2005)
numerous plans included the opening, in 1921, of an exhibition in the Hunyadi Hall of the Royal Palace introducing Matthias's times to the public, organising a chivalric tournament and staging historical tableaux vivant. They also intended to mark, with a plaque, every single building in Buda entered by the King. That is why they wholeheartedly embraced the suggestion made in 1929 by the Committee for the Protection of Historical Sites that a replica of the Bautzen memorial be set up. By that time architect Kálmán Lux had carved into stone the reproduction of the plaster cast made for the Millenary Exhibition adding the escutcheons missing from the original. The relief was "presented to the public without any ostentation" in 1930, as reported by Budai Napló (The Buda Journal). The newspaper adds, however, that the association would have postponed the unveiling to 1936 so that it would be part of the events commemorating the 250th anniversary of Buda's recapture from the Turks. The Heroes of Buda's Recapture The significance, even by all-European standards, of the retaking of the Fortress of Buda from the Turks could not be properly commemorated by a single plaque or statue-, either would have been an insufficient gesture of paying homage to the fallen. In preparation for the bicentenary celebrations, the municipality of Hungary's capital commissioned, in 1885, Gyula Benczúr with commemorating on canvas the scene of the victorious Hungarian army, commanded by Charles of Lorraine and Petneházy, marching into the Castle of Buda in triumph. The work, which was not to be finished before 1896, was first exhibited during the Millenary Celebrations. It was to mark the 250th anniversary of the event in 1936 that the fine statue of Pope Innocent XI, sponsor of the anti-Turkish Holy League, was set up in the square named in his honour near Matthias Church. With the leading personalities having been given their due on Benczur’s canvas, it was now possible to commemorate the valiant soldiers of the European armies. The relief forces sent by the Emperor comprised Bavarian, Saxon, Frankish, and Brandenburg units as well as Hungarian foot-soldiers, Heyducks, and Hussars fighting under the command of the Győr, Kanizsa, and the mining towns’ captains- general. Other nations represented among,the ranks joining battle with the 9
