Discover Hungary’s most popular street artworks: art on the streets

The eventful centuries, victorious and darker periods of Hungarian history are often depicted in works of art found on the streets. The statue of Saint Stephen and Gisela (by József Ispánki) erected in Veszprém in 1938 commemorates the founding of the Hungarian state. You will find statues or reliefs of the founder of the Hungarian state and his wife elsewhere as well, for example in Tihany, Szeged, Kapuvár and Zalaegerszeg. There are several street statues of King Matthias around the country, e.g. in Pécs, Szeged, Győr and Budapest. The Millennium Memorial on Heroes’ Square is essentially a giant summary of the greatest figures in Hungarian history, starting with the chieftains of the seven Hungarian tribes, through King Louis I of Hungary up to Lajos Kossuth. Almost every Hungarian town has a memorial of the 1956 Revolution. All Hungarian towns and villages have some kind of religious work of art. One of the most notable ones is the recently revealed Blessing Jesus statue in Tarcal, which is the tallest granite statue of Christ in Europe, and if you stand next to it, you will have a beautiful view of the land around it.

The darker periods of our history are commemorated by the sculpture of shoes on the bank of the Danube set up to remind everyone of the victims of the Holocaust. The joint work of film director Can Togay and sculptor Gyula Pauer was selected as the second most memorable street statue in the world in 2016. The memorial by Attila F. Kovács erected in front of the House of Terror Museum in Budapest evokes the memories of the Cold War period.

Of course, Hungarian history is not all about statesmen, but also the writers, poets and composers who left some long-lasting pieces of art to future generations. And these future generations remember them, often through their statues. Géza Gárdonyi has statues in his home town, Gárdony-Agárdpuszta and in Eger (actually several of them) where his most famous novel, The Stars of Eger took place. The most well-known statue of Attila József, which is called ‘By the Danube’ (by László Márton) is found in Kossuth tér in Budapest, but there is no Hungarian town or village which does not have a statue, relief or plaque of our great poet. There are several street statues of Franz Liszt in the country, from Budapest to Sopron and from Szekszárd to Szeged. Of these, the most spellbinding is the miniature statue by Mihály Kolodko, which was set up in Budapest near the airport named after the composer.

Several of our favourite actors, film or even cartoon characters served as models for works of art on streets. In the past couple of years, the miniature sculptures by Mihály Kolodko have become targets of popular explorations, since they portray figures known to every Hungarian tourist: Kockásfülű Nyúl (Rabbit with Checked Ears), Főkukac (Chief Worm), Mr Bean’s teddy or Mekk Elek, all characters that we remember from our childhood. Crime-fiction fans seek out and take photos of Columbo (by Géza Fekete) whose statue is set up at a peculiar place: at the head of the street name after Miksa Falk, who was the great-grandfather of Peter Falk, the actor who played the detective. Sculptures on the streets of Budapest include one of the heroes from the book called The Boys of Paul Street and the statue of Öcsi Puskás. Sculptor Ádám Farkas has erected a statue of the actor István Bujtor in Balatonfüred, because he was well known for his love of sailing and has done a lot in his films to promote Lake Balaton.

Many sculptures depict charming little scenes, for example the statue of the ‘Little Princess’ by László Marton, sitting on the railing by the Danube promenade. The figures in the sculpture called ‘Girls from Miskolc’ by László Kutas in central Miskolc are just simply talking to each other on a bench, while in Győr, the sculpture called ‘Girl holding a cat’ by Ferenc Lebó is very popular.