Liberty Statue on Gellért Hill
Why is it significant?
Catch your breath and look up. On a tall stone pedestal stands a bronze woman, her body leaning into the wind, holding a palm leaf above her head with both hands. You have seen her already from the bridges and the embankments; from up here you finally understand how big she is.
Key Facts
| Place | Liberty Statue on Gellért Hill |
|---|---|
| Address | Citadella sétány, 1118 Budapest, Hungary |
| Geo Coordinates | 47.48670, 19.04800 |
| Part of Walk | Hot Springs and a Hilltop: Budapest's Tabán, Gellért Hill and the Thermal Baths |
| Generated | Generated |
Catch your breath and look up. On a tall stone pedestal stands a bronze woman, her body leaning into the wind, holding a palm leaf above her head with both hands. You have seen her already from the bridges and the embankments; from up here you finally understand how big she is.
This is the Liberty Statue, by the sculptor Zsigmond Kisfaludi Strobl, unveiled in 1947. The woman herself is around fourteen metres tall, and with the pedestal the monument reaches roughly forty. At her feet stand two smaller figures, one carrying a torch, the other fighting a dragon.
When she was unveiled, she was a monument to the Soviet liberation of Budapest in 1945, the end of a siege that had left the city in ruins. A bronze Soviet soldier stood in front of her, and inscriptions thanked the liberators. After 1989 the soldier was removed and taken to Memento Park on the edge of the city, together with other statues of the communist era. The new inscription honours all those who gave their lives for Hungary's independence, freedom and prosperity.
There is also a story that every guide in Budapest knows. It claims that Kisfaludi Strobl had originally designed the figure as a memorial to the son of Regent Horthy, a pilot killed in 1942, and simply adapted it when the regime changed. Historians treat the tale with caution. But it says something true about this city: the same bronze has been asked to mean different things as power changed hands.
Now turn around and let the view take over. The Danube curves beneath you, with its bridges stitched across it, Pest flat and endless to the east, the Buda hills rolling green to the west. On a clear day you can follow the river far to the south. Right behind the statue rise the long grey walls of a fortress. Walk along them to its gate.