Bem József tér: Where 23 October 1956 Began

Why is it significant?

In the middle of the square, a bronze general in a long coat strides forward on a stone pedestal, urging invisible troops into battle. Walk around him once. He is not Hungarian at all... and yet few statues in Budapest mean more to Hungarians.

Key Facts

Open the walk

In the middle of the square, a bronze general in a long coat strides forward on a stone pedestal, urging invisible troops into battle. Walk around him once. He is not Hungarian at all... and yet few statues in Budapest mean more to Hungarians.

József Bem was a Polish officer, a veteran of Poland's failed uprising against Russia in 1830 and 1831. When Hungary rose against the Habsburgs in 1848, he offered his sword, and he became one of the most successful commanders of the war, above all in Transylvania. His aide-de-camp there was the young poet Sándor Petőfi, who adored him and called him old father Bem. After the defeat, Bem fled to the Ottoman Empire, converted to Islam, took the name Murad Pasha and died in Aleppo in 1850. This statue, by János Istók, was unveiled in 1934.

On 23 October 1956, news had arrived from Poland that Poles had stood up to Moscow and won some concessions. Budapest students decided to march in solidarity, from the statue of Petőfi in Pest to this statue of the Polish general in Buda. The authorities first banned the march, then allowed it, and by the afternoon this square was packed with tens of thousands of people. The writer Péter Veres read out a proclamation, and Hungarian flags appeared with the communist coat of arms cut out of the middle, leaving a hole.

That holed flag became the symbol of the revolution. By evening the crowds had crossed to Parliament, the huge Stalin statue had been pulled down, and shots were fired at the radio building. Within two weeks Soviet tanks had crushed the uprising. Around two and a half thousand Hungarians were killed, and some two hundred thousand fled the country.

So a Polish general who died a Muslim in Syria became the meeting point for a Hungarian revolution inspired by Poland. Budapest's history rarely runs in straight lines. Now walk towards the river and the bridgehead of Margaret Bridge, where the trams swing out over the water.