Batthyány Eternal Flame: Where Liberty Square Was a Prison
Why is it significant?
At the crossing of Báthory utca and Hold utca, find a bronze lantern on a stone pedestal, with a small flame burning inside it, day and night. No square, no statue... just a lamp at a street corner. It marks one of the most painful dates in the Hungarian calendar.
Key Facts
| Place | Batthyány Eternal Flame: Where Liberty Square Was a Prison |
|---|---|
| Address | Báthory utca - Hold utca, 1054 Budapest, Hungary |
| Geo Coordinates | 47.50600, 19.05200 |
| Part of Walk | Crown, Dome and River: Budapest's Parliament, St Stephen's Basilica & the Danube Bank |
| Generated | Generated |
At the crossing of Báthory utca and Hold utca, find a bronze lantern on a stone pedestal, with a small flame burning inside it, day and night. No square, no statue... just a lamp at a street corner. It marks one of the most painful dates in the Hungarian calendar.
Count Lajos Batthyány became the first prime minister of a Hungarian government answerable to its own parliament in the spring of 1848. Within months that revolution turned into a war of independence against the Habsburgs, and in 1849 Austrian and Russian armies crushed it. Batthyány was court-martialled and sentenced to hang. The night before, he wounded himself in the neck with a small dagger smuggled in to him, so the hanging was impossible. On 6 October 1849 he was shot by a firing squad instead, on almost exactly this spot.
In those days there was no square here. This whole area was the Neugebäude, a vast barracks and prison built under Joseph II in the 1780s, a symbol of Austrian control over Pest. It was demolished at the end of the 1890s, and on its ground the city laid out a new square and named it, quite deliberately, Liberty Square. The lamp was set up in 1926, and the street running through the neighbourhood is called Október 6. utca.
On the same day in 1849, thirteen Hungarian generals were executed at Arad. Legend says Austrian officers clinked their beer glasses to celebrate, and Hungarians swore never to clink beer again for a hundred and fifty years. The vow should have expired in 1999... but watch a table of Hungarians lift their beers and you may notice that many still hold back.
Every 6 October, Hungary marks a day of national mourning, and wreaths pile up around this little flame. Now walk a few steps south along Hold utca and keep your eyes high. On your side of the street a roof is about to start glittering in green and yellow.