Szablyár Péter: Step by step - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2010)

Gellért Hill. Ornamental Stairs to the Eponym

■ Gellert Hiti. itain, retaining wall

Joseph I, who made the donation of ten sculptures glorifying Hungary's past to the nation in 1898. One of these was the statue of Bishop St Gellért; the location where this was to be set up was clearly determined by the hill that bore his name. The 18 competitive designs submitted for consideration were reviewed by a prestigious. The first prize, and the two thousand korona award with it, went to the tender codenamed "Turul’’ (for the mythical bird of the Magyars), a design made by Mór Katalin and Aladár Árkay. The second prize, worth a thousand korona, was awarded to the work bearing the codename "Elizabeth” and prepared by Ignác Alpár. In the lengthened axis of Elizabeth Bridge, above the hillside enlivened by the sight of the cataract and accessible via an artificial waterfall stands Gyula Jankovits's statue of St Gellért, a sculpture to reach a height of 6 metres. The figure of the pagan warrior in the foreground meant to fill in the historical situation was sculpted by Aladár Gárdos. Working drawings for the structure that came to determine the visual character of the bridge’s environs were made by János Bakos, who put into practice the builders’ intentions to integrate the complex of retaining wall — stairs - monument into the natural surroundings and thus become a jewel of the route leading to the royal palace.

The damages sustained by the statue of St Gellért and the system of retaining walls during the siege of Budapest were not repaired before the rebuilding of Elizabeth

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