Prohászka László: Equestrian Statues - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1997)

The equestrian statue of Gyula Andrássy

1906 is the annus mirabilis of the capital’s public statuary. Few cities in the world can claim to have seen two monumental equestrian statues inaugurated within a single year, both with the participation of the country’s monarch at that. After the formal inauguration of St. István’s statue in the Castle on 21 May, the monument of Gyula Andrássy was unveiled on 2 December in the square by the south wing of the recently completed Parliament.

Andrássy had been prime minister of the independent Hungarian government which was formed after the signing of the Austro-Hungarian settlement of 1867, and would later become the foreign minister jointly representing Austria and Hungary. The erection of his equestrian statue was decreed by Statute No. iii of 1890. The commission was unanimously awarded to György Zala. In the work of the artist, Count Gyula Andrássy wears ceremonial Hungarian costume and is seated on a sauntering horse. Andrássy had not only been an exceptionally talented politician of

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