Kossuth Memorial, Bronze monument at Kossuth Square in Budapest, Hungary.
The Kossuth Memorial on Kossuth Lajos Square in Budapest is a sculptural group recreated in 2014 as an exact copy of János Horvay's original, preserved in Dombóvár. It shows Lajos Kossuth in the centre, flanked by the members of the first Hungarian parliamentary government, among them Lajos Batthyány, István Széchenyi and Ferenc Deák. The pale stone figures stand on a limestone plinth, with the name KOSSUTH incised on its front and shallow steps leading up to the base.
A public subscription after Kossuth's death in 1894 raised 850,000 forints, and János Horvay won the 1906 competition. His group of the first parliamentary government was inaugurated on 6 November 1927 by Governor Miklós Horthy before 100,000 people. In 1950 the Rákosi government had it dismantled as "pessimistic"; Zsigmond Kisfaludi Strobl's bronze pointing forward followed in 1952. The Horvay figures went to Dombóvár in 1959, and a copy returned to the square in 2014.
Kossuth Square becomes a gathering point during national holidays, especially on March 15, the Hungarian national day. On that day, people come together around the memorial to mark the events of 1848.
The memorial stands directly in front of the Hungarian Parliament and is easy to reach on foot from the Kossuth Lajos ter metro station. It is freely accessible at any hour and pairs well with a visit to the Parliament building or a walk along the Danube.
The 1927 group by János Horvay was dismantled in 1950 on the orders of Mátyás Rákosi's government, which judged it "pessimistic"; the figures were handed to Dombóvár in 1959 and re-erected separately in its City Park in 1973. The copy now on the square was made from that surviving group and unveiled in 2014.
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