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

Heroes’ Square, or Hősök tere as it is called in Hungarian, is of truly unique significance among the squares of Budapest. The composite view of the monument commemorating Hungary’s thousand years of statehood, the sculptures of the Magyar chieftains and the Cenotaph to Hungary’s Heroes is a major landmark - just as much of a landmark of Budapest as the Chain Bridge or Parliament.

Before 1932, today’s Heroes’ Square was officially part of the City Park. In that year the square was given the status of an independent administrative unit, but in reality it has never been separated from the City Park area, itself accessible thorough the “gate” of the square. With no buildings to form solid walls flanking its sides, Heroes’ Square is not a city square in the classic sense of the word. And yet the two museums belonging to the leafy areas on either side, together with the Millenary Monument closing Andrássy út (supplemented with the two corner buildings standing on Dózsa György út) give the square its definite outlines.

Standing in the axis of Andrássy út, the Millenary Monument is a fitting and imposing closure, which also provides a connection between the square and the City Park lying behind it at a point where the major

Heroes’ Square from above

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