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

Stairs that have gone missing

culties envisaged to beset its removal, which fate also befell the King's Stairs and the Diplomats' Stairs, too. Their ornamental gateways were pulled down in 1965, but these might just be restored on the basis of extant original documentation. Although the Habsburg Stairs, which function as a main entrance, sustained no serious damages during the devastating bombardment, it, too, fell victim to the reconstruction of the facade. The torso of a sculpture once standing on it may still be lying face down somewhere near the stairs.

The community of architects in Hungary is astir with the controversy besetting the prospects of a historically faithful reconstruction of the palace complex. With the benevolent passage of time a clearer picture is beginning to emerge with ever fewer personal arguments standing in the way of implementing the necessary corrections.

From a statue of Stalin into a grandstand

On 21 December 1949 — Joseph Stalin’s 70th birthday - the decision was taken to erect the statue of the "Generalissimus" in Budapest. A place was allotted to it opposite to the spot on the edge of the City Park where Vilma királynő út (today’s Városligeti fasor) intersects with Dózsa György út. Of the 25 contestants invited to submit a tender, it was Sándor Mikus who won the commission. That was when the grandI Military parade at the statue oh Stalin, 1952

72