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

Gábor Bethlen - György Vastagh Jr., 1902 Relief- István Szabó: Bethlen concludes a treaty with Bohemia. (The Prince of Transylvania signed a treaty with the Bohemian King Frederick to defend their respective countries from the Habsburg threat from Vienna.)

Imre Thököly - Jenő Grantner, 1954

Relief - Jenő Grantner: Thököly’s kuruc troops defeat

the pro-Habsburg labanc forces. (Troops commanded

by the leader of the anti-Habsburg movement of the

kuruc wiped out the army led by the German captain

of Sárospatak at the Battle of Szikszó on 3 November

1679.)

Ferenc Rákóczi II - Zsigmond Kisfaludi Strobl, 1955 Relief - Zsigmond Kisfaludi Strobl: Tamás Esze welcomes a returning Rákóczi with his army of serfs (Ferenc Rákóczi II stepped on Hungarian soil on 16 June 1703 to assume the command of the War of Liberty.)

Lajos Kossuth - Zsigmond Kisfaludi Strobl, 1955 Relief - Zsigmond Kisfaludi Strobl: Kossuth calls to arms the people of the Great Plain. (To set up the defence forces of the War of Independence Kossuth led a recruiting mission to the towns of the Great Plain on 24 September.)

The column with Archangel Gabriel and the sculptural group of the seven chieftains were restored in 1995-96 and the statues in the colonnade are now being renovated.

The Cenotaph to Hungary’s heroes

After World War I, both the victorious and the defeated nations erected monuments to honour the memory of the simple soldier who gave in battle all anyone has to give—his life.

In 1921 the National Economic Association of War Veterans initiated the idea that a fitting cenotaph be set up in Budapest to honour the memory of the CJnknown Soldier. 190 designs were entered in the competition invited on 24 March 1924. The invitation did not spec34