The ''Liberty Statue'' or ''Freedom Statue'' ( ) is a monument at the east end of the

Citadella The Citadella () is the fortification located upon the top of Gellért Hill in Budapest, Hungary. ''Citadella'' is the Hungarian language, Hungarian word for citadel, a kind of Fortification, fortress. The word is exclusively used by other lan ...

Gellért Hill Gellért Hill (; ; ) is a high hill overlooking the Danube in Budapest, Hungary. It is located in the 1st and the 11th districts. The hill was named after Saint Gerard who was thrown to death from the hill. The famous Hotel Gellért and th ...

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. It commemorates those who sacrificed their lives for the independence, freedom, and prosperity of Hungary.

History

It was first erected in 1947 in remembrance of the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

liberation of Hungary during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, which ended the occupation by Nazi Germany. Its location upon Gellért Hill makes it a prominent feature of Budapest's cityscape. The 14 m tall bronze statue stands atop a 26 m pedestal and holds a

palm Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae ** List of Arecaceae genera **Palm oil * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music ...

leaf. Two smaller statues are also present around the base, but the original monument consisted of two more originally that have since been removed from the site and relocated to

Statue Park Memento Park (Hungarian: ''Szoborpark'') is an open-air museum in Budapest, Hungary, dedicated to monumental statues and sculpted plaques from Hungary's Communist period (1949–1989). There are statues of Lenin, Marx, and Engels, as well as sev ...

. The monument was designed by

Zsigmond Kisfaludi Strobl Zsigmond Kisfaludi Strobl (1 July 1884 – 14 August 1975) was a Hungary, Hungarian sculptor and artist. His sculptural style integrated elements of Realism (arts), realism and academism style mainly engaged in creating portrait busts. Extern ...

. According to Kisfaludi Strobl, the design was originally made for the memorial of

István Horthy István Horthy de Nagybánya (9 December 1904 – 20 August 1942) was a Hungarian politician and fighter pilot during World War II. He was briefly Vice-Regent of Hungary in 1942, and was the eldest son of Hungarian regent Miklós Horthy. Biog ...

and would in that role have featured a human child instead of the palm leaf that was a Soviet addition. At the time of the monument's construction, the defeat of Axis forces by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

was officially proclaimed “liberation”—leading to the original inscription upon the memorial (both in Hungarian and Russian): A FELSZABADÍTÓ
SZOVJET HŐSÖK
EMLÉKÉRE
A HÁLÁS MAGYAR NÉP
1945
ОСВОБОДИТЕЛЯМ
СОВЕТСКИМ ГЕРОЯМ
ОТ
БЛАГОДАРНОГО
ВЕНГЕРСКОГО НАРОДА which can be translated to read, "To the memory of the liberating Soviet heroes rected bythe grateful Hungarian people n1945". Over the following years, public sentiment toward the Soviets decreased to the point of

revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

, which was attempted and temporarily succeeded in 1956 and subsequently damaged some portions of the monument. After the 1989 transition from

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

rule to

democracy Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...

, the inscription was modified to read: MINDAZOK EMLÉKÉRE
AKIK
ÉLETÜKET ÁLDOZTÁK
MAGYARORSZÁG
FÜGGETLENSÉGÉÉRT,
SZABADSÁGÁÉRT
ÉS BOLDOGULÁSÁÉRT Translated from Hungarian: "To the memory of those all who sacrificed their lives for the independence, freedom, and prosperity of Hungary". The Russian-language version of the tribute was removed in its entirety.

From the city

File:Budapest, Szent István Bazilika, panoráma terasz, kilátás, 21.jpg, From Saint Stephen's Basilica File:Budapest, ELTE, Trefort-kert, E épület, kilátás, 7.jpg, From ELTE Trefort garden File:Budapest, Tőzsdepalota, kilátás, 2.jpg, From Stock Exchange Palace File:Budapest, Városház utca 1, kilátás, 19.jpg, From Városház utca 1. File:Budapest, Vértanúk tere 1, kilátás, 32.jpg, From Vértanúk tere 1. File:Budapest, Gellért-hegy, Sziklatemplom, 34.jpg, With Sziklatemplom File:Budapest, ELTE Könyvtár, kilátás, 2.jpg, From ELTE library File:Budapest, Bajcsy-Zsilinszki út, kilátás, 46.jpg, From Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út 9. File:Budapest, Andrássy út, volt MÁV-székház, kilátás, 19.jpg, From EX MÁV headquarters File:Budapest, Kasselik üzlet- és lakóház, kilátás, 8.jpg, From Vörösmarty tér File:Budapest, MOL Campus, kilátás, 4.jpg, From MOL Campus

References

{{Budapest Monuments and memorials in Budapest Buildings and structures in Budapest Soviet military memorials and cemeteries Hungary–Soviet Union relations History of Budapest 1947 sculptures Tourist attractions in Budapest Victory monuments Gellért Hill

History

From the city

See also

References