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 ...