Budapest 4: Heroes’ Square and the Vajdahunyad Castle [Sky Watch Friday]

After a field trip and lunch, our group visited Heroes’ Square. This is a huge open plaza containing two significant monuments. One is a semi-circular colonnade bearing 14 statues of men who had major impacts on Hungary’s history. The second is a 36-meter-tall column, topped with a figure representing archangel Gabriel presenting a crown to the nation’s founding king. At the base of the column is a group of seven statues representing the original tribal chieftains who brought the Magyar people to the land that is now Hungary [around A.D. 896]. The monument was erected in 1896 as part of the Millennial Celebration commemorating this movement. The images below are from my cell phone, as those taken with my Canon have somehow been lost.

We continued strolling into City Park [Városliget] to the Vajdahunyad Castle, which was also built for the Celebration. It was not really a castle, rather a complex of buildings reflecting different architectural styles: Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque. Our entrance into the castle area was through a gate with two Gothic style towers.

To our left, we passed the Ják Church, which contains an accurate reproduction of an early 13th century Romanesque Benedictine church facade

Close by was one of Budapest’s most popular monuments, the statue of Anonymous [completed in 1903]. You can see how the tip of the pen has been rubbed shiny by its many visitors.

Off to our right was a lovely Baroque building, which now serves as the Museum of Agriculture.

I don't know the function of the Renaissance building below, nor that of the Gothic tower behind it].

The Castle is situated on the edge of a small lake, which we passed as we exited the grounds.  The last image shows a nice overview of some of the structures, which are along the water’s edge.