Porhászka László: The Danube Promenade - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1998)

took a pleasure ride in the famous tram No. 2 from its terminus at Jászai Mari tér to Vigadó tér. Here, as everywhere else, the Prince and his royal spouse were greeted by a huge and enthusiastic crowd.

However, the spring of 1990 has gone down in history for reasons other than the royal visit - that is the year which saw the changing of Hungary’s political system. The political events left their mark on the promenade, too. The Monument to Soviet Airmen was removed. The red granite obelisk weighing several tonnes was expertly taken to pieces and removed between 9 and 11 March 1992.

Contrary to what many believed, there were no soldiers buried underneath. There were, however, Soviet monuments elsewhere in Budapest which stood above or near war graves, which were removed along with the monuments. The mortal remains of the Soviet soldiers thus exhumed were then reburied on 2 November 1992 with the appropriate military and religious (Eastern Orthodox) ceremony in section 215 of Rákoskeresztúr Cemetery. It was on that spot, too, where the almost twelve-metre-tall red granite obelisk removed from Vigadó tér was re-erected, now to stand guard above the genuine graves.

On 17 April 1993, the Seamen's Monument was unveiled between the Hotel Forum and the Thonet Court, where Szende Pál utca reaches the promenade. Lying on a large base made of cast-stone slabs corrugated in a wave-like pattern, the monument, a huge iron anchor, keeps alive the memory of Hungarian sailors who have perished in the oceans. By the lower part of the anchor, which is painted black, there is a cast bronze, crown- topped, laurel wreathed escutcheon of Hungary. Etched into a copper plaque by the escutcheon is the inscription:

Idegen tenger zúg hamvaik felett, / Magyar, ki erre jársz, köszöntsd hőseidet! / (Strange seas rage above their remains; / Hungarian, when passing by, salute your heroes!) In memory / of those Hungarian seamen / who lost their life at sea. / Erected by the / Hungarian Seamen’s Association.

The monument, hardly rising above pavement level, is guarded by two black bollards connected by thick iron chains.

It is part of the histoiy of the statues on the Danube

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