Széchenyi István tér and the Academy of Sciences
Why is it significant?
Here Zrínyi utca opens out onto a broad square on the Danube. Ahead of you, the stone lions of the Chain Bridge guard the way to Buda. On your right stands a stately neo-Renaissance palace with statues along its roofline: the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Key Facts
| Place | Széchenyi István tér and the Academy of Sciences |
|---|---|
| Address | Széchenyi István tér 9, 1051 Budapest, Hungary |
| Geo Coordinates | 47.50130, 19.04610 |
| Part of Walk | Crown, Dome and River: Budapest's Parliament, St Stephen's Basilica & the Danube Bank |
| Generated | Generated |
Here Zrínyi utca opens out onto a broad square on the Danube. Ahead of you, the stone lions of the Chain Bridge guard the way to Buda. On your right stands a stately neo-Renaissance palace with statues along its roofline: the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Everything you see here goes back to one restless aristocrat.
Count István Széchenyi had travelled through England and come home convinced that Hungary was decades behind. On 3 November 1825, at the Diet in Pozsony, today's Bratislava, he stood up and offered a whole year's income from his estates to found a learned society for the Hungarian language. Others followed his example, and the Academy was born. This palace, designed by the Berlin architect Friedrich August Stüler, was completed in 1865.
He did not stop there. Széchenyi promoted horse racing, steamships on the Danube, the regulation of the river and gentlemen's clubs where reformers could talk. And he pushed for the first permanent bridge between Buda and Pest. The story goes that in 1820 he was stuck on the wrong bank for days, unable to reach his father's funeral because of ice on the river. The bridge in front of you, opened in 1849, carries his name.
His own ending was dark. In 1848, as revolution turned into war, Széchenyi suffered a breakdown and was taken to an asylum at Döbling near Vienna. He lived there for more than a decade, writing furiously against the Austrian government, and died there in 1860. His great rival Lajos Kossuth had called him the greatest Hungarian, and the name stuck.
Under communism this space was called Roosevelt tér; since 2011 it has carried Széchenyi's name again, and his statue stands in the middle. Now turn to the building on the south-eastern side of the square, the one with a shining mosaic high on its facade and an arched gateway below.