Prohászka László: Equestrian Statues - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1997)
tail and prominence of a portrait. The young, thirty-one- year-old chief commander, a military leader at the peak of his prowess, wore a plain, somewhat longish coat with no other ornament than his general’s epaulettes and his famously large riding boots. Above the equally plain saddle cloth, by the knees of the general and on the saddle, was a pistol holster on either side. The general also wore a sword by his side, whose original is still kept in the Hungarian National Museum (Múzeum körút in Pest). Carved into the smooth surface of the front of the pedestal was the inscription Görgey Arthur 1818-1916, while the two sides bore the names of the great battles of the independence war, in which Görgey commandeered the Hungarian troops. (According to the evidence of contemporary photos, the place names Bányavárosok, Hatvan, Tápió- bicske, Isaszeg, Vác were visible on the left-hand side. No picture survives of the less easily photographed right-hand side.) In conformity to the Historicist traditions of the period, the pediment rested on a substructure of some stairs, which in turn was surrounded by a grassy square whose four points were each guarded by a cannon. These superfluous features did more to disturb than to enhance the overall aesthetic effect of György Vastagh’s work. The monument sustained serious but not irreparable damage in 1945. When the impact of an exploding Russian shell pushed it off its pediment, several pieces broke off the statue. However, it seemed as though its fate would take a lucky turn, as the equestrian figure was not broken up - as shown by a contemporary photograph. The main section of the monument, the head and trunk of the horse and the full figure of the general lay in one piece outside the Museum of Military History. In the course of rubble clearance, the statue, together with its broken-off pieces, was carefully carted off as a public monument to be repaired. The slightly damaged base remained in its place for years, which was interpreted as a sign of the authorities’ intention to set the statue up again. This, however, was never to take place. Görgey, who, under the town of Világos on 13 August 1849, had laid down his arms before an enemy whose force he deemed so overwhelming that any resistance would be pointless, was branded a traitor in the early fifties by Hungary's official historiography, and thus the bronze of the monument weighing as much as 34
