Hősök tere (; ) is one of the major squares in
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 ...
, noted for its iconic Millennium Monument with statues featuring the
Seven chieftains of the Magyars and other important Hungarian national leaders, as well as the Memorial Stone of Heroes, often erroneously referred as the
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The square lies at the outbound end of
Andrássy Avenue Small arms of the Andrássy family
The House of Andrássy is the name of a Hungarian noble family of very ancient lineage that was prominent in Hungarian history. The full family name is ''Andrássy de Csíkszentkirály et Krasznahorka''. Csí ...
next to
City Park (''Városliget''). It hosts the
Museum of Fine Arts and the
Palace of Art (''Műcsarnok''). The square has played an important part in contemporary Hungarian history and has been a host to many political events, such as the reburial of
Imre Nagy
Imre Nagy ( ; ; 7 June 1896 – 16 June 1958) was a Hungarian communist politician who served as Council of Ministers of the Hungarian People's Republic, Chairman of the Council of Ministers (''de facto'' Prime Minister of Hungary, Prime Minis ...
in 1989. Most sculptures were made by sculptor
György Zala from
Lendva, with one made by
György Vastagh.
In Budapest there are three more squares named Hősök tere, 'Heroes' Square', in the districts or neighbourhoods of
Soroksár,
Békásmegyer
Békásmegyer () is a neighbourhood in Budapest, Hungary. It belongs administratively to the 3rd District. Békásmegyer consists of two different parts, a huge high-rise housing estate and the traditional ''Ófalu'' ("Old Village") with older hou ...
and
Rákosliget.
History and outlook

''Hősök tere'' is surrounded by two important buildings,
Museum of Fine Arts on the left and
Palace of Art (or more accurately ''Hall of Art'') on the right. On the other side it faces
Andrássy Avenue Small arms of the Andrássy family
The House of Andrássy is the name of a Hungarian noble family of very ancient lineage that was prominent in Hungarian history. The full family name is ''Andrássy de Csíkszentkirály et Krasznahorka''. Csí ...
which has two buildings looking at the square – one is residential and the other one is the
embassy of Serbia (former Yugoslavian embassy where
Imre Nagy
Imre Nagy ( ; ; 7 June 1896 – 16 June 1958) was a Hungarian communist politician who served as Council of Ministers of the Hungarian People's Republic, Chairman of the Council of Ministers (''de facto'' Prime Minister of Hungary, Prime Minis ...
secured sanctuary in 1956).
The central feature of Heroes' Square, as well as a landmark of Budapest, is the Millennium Memorial (, also translated Millennium Monument or Millennial Monument). Construction began in 1896 to commemorate the thousandth anniversary of the
Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin
The Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin, also known as the Hungarian conquest or the Hungarian land-taking (), was a series of historical events ending with the settlement of the Hungarians in Central Europe in the late 9th and early 10t ...
and the
foundation of the Hungarian state in 896, and was part of a much larger construction project which also included the expansion and refurbishing of Andrássy Avenue and the construction of the
first metro line in Budapest (). Construction was mostly completed in 1900, which was when the square received its name. The four allegoric sculptures were added in 1906, the monument as a whole basically looked like it does today (except for the kings' statues), complete with the surrounding museums on either side, and it was inaugurated still in the same year, 1906.
When the monument was originally constructed, Hungary was a part of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire
Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...
and thus the last five spaces for statues on the left of the colonnade were reserved for members of the ruling
Habsburg dynasty
The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...
. From left to right these were
Ferdinand I (relief:
Defense of the Castle at Eger);
Leopold I (relief: Eugene of Savoy defeats the Turks at
Zenta),
Charles III
Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms.
Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...
,
Maria Theresa
Maria Theresa (Maria Theresia Walburga Amalia Christina; 13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780) was the ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 1740 until her death in 1780, and the only woman to hold the position suo jure, in her own right. She was the ...
(relief: The
Hungarian Diet
The Diet of Hungary or originally: Parlamentum Publicum / Parlamentum Generale () was the most important political assembly in Hungary since the 12th century, which emerged to the position of the supreme legislative institution in the Kingdom ...
votes support for Maria Therese with their vow "vitam et sanguinem" at
Pressburg
Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...
on 11 September 1741) and
Franz Joseph
Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I ( ; ; 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the ruler of the Grand title of the emperor of Austria, other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 1848 until his death ...
(relief: Franz Joseph crowned by
Gyula Andrássy
Count Gyula Andrássy de Csíkszentkirály et Krasznahorka (, 8 March 1823 – 18 February 1890) was a Hungarian statesman, who served as Prime Minister of Hungary (1867–1871) and subsequently as List of foreign ministers of Austria-Hungar ...
). The monument was damaged in World War II and when it was rebuilt the Habsburgs were replaced by the current figures.
On 16 June 1989 a crowd of 250,000 gathered at the square for the historic reburial of
Imre Nagy
Imre Nagy ( ; ; 7 June 1896 – 16 June 1958) was a Hungarian communist politician who served as Council of Ministers of the Hungarian People's Republic, Chairman of the Council of Ministers (''de facto'' Prime Minister of Hungary, Prime Minis ...
, who had been executed in June 1958.

At the front of the monument is the Memorial Stone of Heroes (Hősök emlékköve), a large stone
cenotaph
A cenotaph is an empty grave, tomb or a monument erected in honor of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere or have been lost. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although t ...
surrounded by an ornamental iron chain. The cenotaph is dedicated "To the memory of the heroes who gave their lives for the freedom of our people and our national independence." While some guide books refer to this as a tomb it is not a burial place but is erroneously referred as the "Tomb of the Unknown Soldier". Hungary has no
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier unlike most European countries, nor any memorial to the unknown fallen of wars. No human remnants are interred here, there is only an artesian well under the tombstone-like memorial. The Memorial Stone of Heroes was originally erected in 1929 as a tribute to those who died defending Hungary's 1000-year-old borders. It was removed in 1951 as its message was politically unacceptable for the Communist regime. The current one was built at the same spot in 1956. The memorial is surrounded by a fence and it is off limits for visitors. The Ministry of Defence only opens the gate for foreign dignitaries and official state ceremonies.
Behind the cenotaph but within the decorative chain is a flat bronze plate which marks the site of an
artesian well
An artesian well is a well that brings groundwater to the surface without pumping because it is under pressure within a body of rock or sediment known as an aquifer. When trapped water in an aquifer is surrounded by layers of Permeability (ea ...
whose drilling was completed in 1878 by Vilmos Zsigmondy. This well provides water for the
Széchenyi thermal bath behind the monument and the Dagály Baths in the ''Népfürdő utca''. The well reached a depth of 971 meters and produces 831 liters of hot water per minute at 74 degrees Celsius.
The Heroes' Square monument has a 90% duplicate in
Shanghai Global Paradise, Shanghai. Since its opening in 1996, it has been mostly degraded and most statues removed.
Millennium Monument
The back of the monument consists of two matched colonnades, each with seven statues representing great figures of Hungarian history.
This is a list of the statesmen portrayed in the semi-circular arcades, with the topic of the relief below each figure given below the name.
Statues of the column
File:Budapest - Millennium monument.jpg, The column
File:Gabor arkangyal.jpg, The top of the column depicts Archangel Gabriel
In the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), Gabriel ( ) is an archangel with the power to announce God's will to mankind, as the messenger of God. He is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the Quran. Many Chris ...
, who holds the Hungarian Holy Crown and the apostolic double cross in his hands
File:Hosok Tere Budapest - left side.jpg, Left side view of some of the statues of the Seven chieftains of the Magyars
Directly behind the cenotaph is a column topped by a statue of the archangel
Gabriel
In the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), Gabriel ( ) is an archangel with the power to announce God's will to mankind, as the messenger of God. He is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the Quran. Many Chris ...
. In his right hand the angel holds the
Holy Crown of
St. Stephen (Istvan), the first king of Hungary. In his left hand the angel holds a
two-barred apostolic cross, a symbol awarded to St. Stephen by the Pope in recognition of his efforts to convert Hungary to Christianity. In Hungarian it is referred to as the
double cross or the apostolic double cross.
At the base of the column is a group of seven mounted figures representing the
Magyar chieftains who led the Hungarian people into the
Carpathian basin
The Pannonian Basin, with the term Carpathian Basin being sometimes preferred in Hungarian literature, is a large sedimentary basin situated in southeastern Central Europe. After the Treaty of Trianon following World War I, the geomorphologic ...
. In the front is
Árpád
Árpád (; 845 – 907) was the head of the confederation of the Magyar tribes at the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries. He might have been either the sacred ruler or '' kende'' of the Hungarians, or their military leader or '' g ...
, considered to be the founder of the Hungarian nation. Behind him are the chieftains
Előd, Ond,
Kond, Tas, Huba, and Töhötöm (Tétény). Little survives in the historical record about these individuals and both their costumes and their horses are considered to be more fanciful than historically accurate.
Statues of the left colonnade
Topping the outer (left) edge of the left colonnade is a statue of a man with a
scythe
A scythe (, rhyming with ''writhe'') is an agriculture, agricultural hand-tool for mowing grass or Harvest, harvesting Crop, crops. It was historically used to cut down or reaping, reap edible grain, grains before they underwent the process of ...
and a woman sowing seed, representing Labour and Wealth. At the inner (right) end of the left colonnade, is a male figure driving a chariot using a snake as a whip and representing War. For the initial five statues of Habsburg emperors and the corresponding reliefs, see above in the history paragraph.
File:Munka és a Jólét.jpg, Labour and Wealth (on the left colonnade)
File:Háború.jpg, Charioteer with a snake, symbolising War
File:Budapest Heroes square Szent István.jpg, Stephen I of Hungary
Stephen I, also known as King Saint Stephen ( ; ; ; 975 – 15 August 1038), was the last grand prince of the Hungarians between 997 and 1000 or 1001, and the first king of Hungary from 1000 or 1001 until his death in 1038. The year of his bi ...
; the king receives the crown from an emissary of the Pope
File:Budapest Heroes square Szent László.jpg, Ladislaus I of Hungary
Ladislaus I (, , , ; 1040 – 29 July 1095), also known as Saint Ladislas, was King of Hungary from 1077 and King of Croatia from 1091. He was the second son of King Béla I of Hungary and Richeza of Poland, Queen of Hungary, Richeza (or Adela ...
; the king slays the Cuman abductor
File:Budapest Heroes square Kálmán 1.jpg, Coloman of Hungary
Coloman the Learned, also the Book-Lover or the Bookish (; ; ; 10703February 1116), was King of Hungary from 1095 and King of Croatia from 1097 until his death. Because Coloman and his younger brother Álmos were underage when their father Gé ...
; the king prohibits the burning of witches
File:Budapest Heroes square II Andras.jpg, Andrew II of Hungary
Andrew II (, , , ; 117721 September 1235), also known as Andrew of Jerusalem, was King of Hungary and King of Croatia, Croatia between 1205 and 1235. He ruled the Principality of Halych from 1188 until 1189/1190, and again between 1208/1209 and ...
; the king leads a crusade
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...
to the Holy Land
The term "Holy Land" is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionall ...
File:Budapest Heroes square Béla IV.jpg, Béla IV of Hungary
Béla IV (1206 – 3 May 1270) was King of Hungary and King of Croatia, Croatia between 1235 and 1270, and Duke of Styria from 1254 to 1258. As the oldest son of Andrew II of Hungary, King Andrew II, he was crowned upon the initiative of a group ...
; the king rebuilds the country after the Mongol invasion
The Mongol invasions and conquests took place during the 13th and 14th centuries, creating history's largest contiguous empire, the Mongol Empire (1206–1368), which by 1260 covered large parts of Eurasia. Historians regard the Mongol devastati ...
File:Budapest Heroes square Károly Robert.jpg, Charles I of Hungary
Charles I, also known as Charles Robert (; ; ; 128816 July 1342), was King of Hungary and Croatia in the union with Hungary, Croatia from 1308 to his death. He was a member of the Capetian House of Anjou and the only son of Charles Martel of A ...
; King Ladislaus IV defeats Ottokar
Ottokar is the medieval German form of the Germanic name Audovacar.
People with the name Ottokar include:
*Two kings of Bohemia, members of the Přemyslid dynasty
** Ottokar I of Bohemia (–1230)
** Ottokar II of Bohemia (–1278)
*Four Styrian m ...
at the battle of Marchfeld
File:Budapest Heroes square Nágy Lájos.jpg, Louis I of Hungary
Louis I, also Louis the Great (; ; ) or Louis the Hungarian (; 5 March 132610 September 1382), was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1342 and King of Poland from 1370. He was the first child of Charles I of Hungary and his wife, Elizabeth of ...
; King Louis the Great occupies Naples
Statues of the right colonnade
At the inner (right) end of the right colonnade is a female figure in a chariot holding a palm frond representing Peace. At the outer (left) end of the right colonnade is a double statue of a man holding a small golden statue and a woman with a palm frond, representing Knowledge and Glory.
File:Béke biga-szobor, Millenniumi emlékmű, Budapest.jpg, The female statue of Peace
File:Tudás és a Dicsőség.jpg, Knowledge and Glory
File:Budapest Heroes square Hunyadi János.jpg, John Hunyadi
John Hunyadi (; ; ; ; ; – 11 August 1456) was a leading Kingdom of Hungary, Hungarian military and political figure during the 15th century, who served as Regent of Hungary, regent of the Kingdom of Hungary (1301–1526), Kingdom of Hungary ...
; the Siege of Belgrade (1456)
The siege of Belgrade, or siege of Nándorfehérvár ( or , "Triumph of Nándorfehérvár"; sr-Cyrl, Опсада Београда, Opsada Beograda) was a military blockade of Belgrade that occurred 4–22 July 1456 in the aftermath of th ...
File:Budapest Heroes square Matyás.jpg, Matthias Corvinus
Matthias Corvinus (; ; ; ; ; ) was King of Hungary and King of Croatia, Croatia from 1458 to 1490, as Matthias I. He is often given the epithet "the Just". After conducting several military campaigns, he was elected King of Bohemia in 1469 and ...
; the king with his scholars
File:Budapest Heroes square Bocskai István.jpg, István Bocskay; Hajdú soldiers defeat the Habsburg imperial forces
File:Budapest Heroes square Bethlen Gábor.jpg, Gabriel Bethlen
Gabriel Bethlen (; 1580 – 15 November 1629) was Prince of Transylvania from 1613 to 1629 and Duke of Opole from 1622 to 1625. He was also King-elect of Hungary from 1620 to 1621, but he never took control of the whole kingdom. Bethlen, sup ...
(statue by György Vastagh); the prince concludes a treaty with Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...
File:Budapest Heroes square Thokoly Imre.jpg, Imre Thököly; the battle of Szikszó
File:Budapest Heroes square Ferenz Rákoczi II.jpg, Francis II Rákóczi
Francis II Rákóczi (, ; 27 March 1676 – 8 April 1735) was a Hungarian nobleman and leader of the Rákóczi's War of Independence against the Habsburgs in 1703–1711 as the prince () of the Estates Confederated for Liberty of the Kingdom of ...
; the prince returns from Poland
File:Budapest Heroes square Kossuth Lájos.jpg, Lajos Kossuth
Lajos Kossuth de Udvard et Kossuthfalva (; ; ; ; 19 September 1802 – 20 March 1894) was a Hungarian nobleman, lawyer, journalist, politician, statesman and governor-president of the Kingdom of Hungary during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, r ...
; Kossuth rallies the peasants of the Great Plain
Gallery
Millennium Monument
File:The Millennium Monument in Heroes' Square, Budapest, Hungary.jpg, Heroes' Square at night
File:Hősök tere éjszaka - Budapest.jpg, Aerial
Buildings around the square
File:Budapest heroes Mucsarnok.jpg, Kunsthalle Budapest
The Budapest Hall of Art or Palace of Art, ( Hungarian − ''Műcsarnok Kunsthalle''), is a contemporary art museum and a historic building located in Budapest, Hungary.
Description
The museum building is on Heroes' Square, facing the Buda ...
at the right side of the Millennium Monument
File:Palace of Art, Budapest.jpeg, Kunsthalle, The main Entrance
File:Szepmuv Muzeum.jpg, Museum of Fine Arts at the left side of the Millennium Monument
File:Museum Fine Arts01.jpg, Museum of Fine arts: The main entrance
File:Budapest Vajdahunyad Castle R01.jpg, Behind the Millennium Monument: copy of the Gothic Vajdahunyad Castle
References
* Hajós, György, ''Heroes' Square'', Municipality of Budapest (2001)
* Gerő, András, ''Heroes' Square Budapest'', Corvina (1990)
External links
Hősök tere underground station
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hosok Tere
Squares in Budapest
World Heritage Sites in Hungary
Monuments and memorials in Budapest
Colonnades
Landmarks in Hungary
Victory monuments
Heroes