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

The Sports Rider in its new place in the Gyula Germanus park

meant for this, and thematically related to the inauguration of the People’s Stadium on 20 August 1953, were plans for several statues with sporting themes. Two statues were to have been placed outside the eastern and the western entrances to the station, on either side of a wide flight of steps, one featuring a female and another a male rider by sculptors Iván Szabó and Pál Pátzay, respectively. Both pieces had already been cast in plaster in 1953 and in the following year their bronze versions were also made. The two statues can therefore be seen to this day. Iván Szabó’s the Female Rider was erected in the town centre of Kiskunhalas in 1972. Pátzay’s Sports Rider, having survived an eventful period, has remained in Budapest. When it became obvious that the construction of the underground lines would have to be postponed into the distant future, the Sports Rider, his cap removed in greeting, was first

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