Hajós György: Heroes' Square - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2001)

The Museum of Fine Arts: detail of the tympan

rented elsewhere, the large sums which were thus made available could be used for the financing of the construction. Although the erection of the section nearest the square was put off until a later time, construction work was not really suspended, which is shown by the fact that as early as 5 December 1903 that unit was also ceremonially topped out.

On 1 December 1906, the building was formally inaugurated in the presence of Emperor Francis Joseph.

The unit nearest the square consists of three ancient temples connected to each other with wings articulated by columns but no openings. The dominant feature is a portico supported by eight fluted columns in the front and another five behind, which is accessible via 24 steps lying along the full width of the structure. The tympanum above the column-supported cornice beam features a stucco copy of a sculptural group of Centaurs and Lapiths on the Olympian temple of Zeus. The famous Zeus-temple was built around 460 B.C. The discovery of the sculptural fragments in the tympanum was one of the great archaeological finds of the second half of the 19th century. Several attempts were made at determining the original location and arrangement of the scattered fragments. The grouping that can be seen here was based on one reconstructed by Ernst Curtius, leader of the excavations carried out between 1875 and 1881. The exact replica is the work of Ignác Langer.

According to legend, the Lapithan king Peirithoos celebrated his nuptials with his beautiful bride

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