Szabadság tér
| Szabadság tér | |
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 Aerial view of Szabadság tér, view of the former stock exchange palace |
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| Basic data | |
| place | Budapest |
| District | Belváros-Lipótváros |
| Created | around 1900 |
| Newly designed | 2003 |
| Confluent streets |
(from east to west) Aulich u., Perczel Mór u., Sas u., Zoltán u., Kiss Ernő u., Vécsey u., Honvéd u. |
| Buildings | Hungarian National Bank , Schwab House, Adria Palace, Embassy of the USA |
| use | |
| User groups | Pedestrians , cyclists , road traffic |
The Szabadság tér ( German : Liberty Square ) is a park-like space in the central V. District ( Belváros-Lipótváros ) of the Hungarian capital Budapest . Its layout with a large number of monuments and a representative peripheral development took place from around 1900 on a former barracks site. It has been redesigned several times, most recently in 2003.
New building (Újépület)
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Engraving of the “new building” around 1800 and view around 1880
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The " new building " ( Hungarian Újépület ), a large, square barracks complex with 4 additional buildings at the corners of the square, each enclosing an inner courtyard , stood on the site of today's Szabadság tér until 1898 . The building was built from 1786 on behalf of the Austrian Emperor Joseph II and was popularly known as the Hungarian Bastille . From 1793 to 1796 it served as a prison for French officers from the battles of the First Coalition War . Half a century later, after the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 , many Hungarians were imprisoned or even executed in the prison wing there, like Lajos Batthyány in 1849.
The entire building complex, which covered an area of 22,725.40 square fathoms (7.6 hectares), increasingly hampered the further urban development of what was then Leopoldstadt . In order to be able to solve the problems associated with its demolition and to be able to coordinate the further design of the "new building terrain", which was quite controversial, a mixed commission was formed at the end of 1891, which included representatives of the city's engineering office and the building council. While the former demanded a complete integration of the vacant building site into the existing road network, primarily for financial reasons - for the surrender of the barracks the government demanded other replacement buildings at Budapest's expense - the latter favored the establishment of an additional city square. At the beginning of February 1892, the commission passed Baron Friedrich Podmaniczky under the leadership of its president. a. Deputy Mayor Gerlóczy, Building Director Lech and Building Councilors Count Ludwig Tißa and Josef Pucher - a compromise option . After that, a park-like plaza was planned for the central part of the “new building terrain”. Some parcels were to be reserved for public purposes, and the remaining parceled area was available for purchase by investors, which should secure the financing of the replacement barracks. As a result of further negotiations between the city authorities, the building council and the ministries of the interior and finance, the new building was acquired by the city of Budapest on October 22, 1897. It was then torn down within about six months. A large part of the area that was freed up was now taken up by the planned new, park-like space, on the edge of which representative buildings were erected.
Development from 1900
Today, Szabadság tér has a mixture of commercial and residential buildings with predominantly older buildings from the time of the original development around and shortly after 1900. Next to the headquarters of the Hungarian National Bank is the US embassy , which has resided in the building built in 1900 for the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce since 1935. Several buildings have been designed in the style of historicism . First of all, the National Bank (1902–1905, no. 8–9) and the former, neoclassical Stock Exchange Palace (1902–1905), which was decorated with Art Nouveau decorations and housed the headquarters of Hungarian television from 1957 to 2009 , should be mentioned. For both buildings, Ignác Alpár prevailed in architectural competitions with his historicizing designs against Ödön Lechner , the initiator of modern Hungarian architecture in Art Nouveau in connection with motifs of folk art, whose post office savings bank building from 1899 to 1901 at Hold utca 4, a parallel street of the Szabadság tér, had been realized. Two other neo-baroque buildings were designed by Arthur Meinig : the palace of the former Hungarian shipping company Adria (No. 16), built between 1900 and 1902, and the Lázár-Dungyerszky Palace (1903, No. 14), now a commercial building, which La Générale built in 2010 Société Immobilière Magyarország was renewed. Other buildings on Freiheitsplatz belong to the Art Nouveau style, such as the Sváb-ház designed by Imre Sváb (No. 13, 1900–1901) or the aforementioned US embassy.
In the square there are statues for the US President Ronald Reagan by István Máté and the US General Harry Hill Bandholtz by Miklós Ligeti . Not far from the US Embassy, in the northern part of the square, there is also a representative monument to the liberation of Hungary from the National Socialist occupation in World War II by the Red Army , which was robbed of the state symbols of the USSR during the Hungarian People's Uprising and for which demolition plans have been repeated in recent times - but without result - had been discussed. Before the Second World War there were four statues erected in 1921 in this area. These symbolized the cardinal points in which the areas lie that Hungary had lost to the other successor states of the Danube monarchy as a result of the First World War after the Treaty of Trianon in 1920; they were designed by János Pásztor (east), István Szentgyörgyi (south), Ferenc Sídlo (west) and Zsigmond Kisfaludi Strobl (north) - see the postcard.
Finally, a memorial to the victims of the Nazi occupation of Hungary in 1944 was inaugurated by Péter Párkányi on the south side of the square in 2014 , which is controversial among the Hungarian public and the opposition. Critics accuse the Hungarian government, in particular Viktor Orbán , of falsifying history because Hungary is portrayed as a victim even though it fought as an ally of Germany in World War II. Even before it was built, people demonstrated against the erection of the monument. In protest, the Budapest citizens erected their own monument in the form of a fence with objects, pictures and information on Hungary's role during the war.
gallery
- building
Hungarian National Bank (No. 8–9)
USA Embassy (No. 12)
Sváb-ház (No. 13)
Dungyerszky Palace (No. 14, right), CIB Bank (No. 15, left) - in the background
Adria Palace (No. 16)
Former Stock Exchange Palace (No. 17)
- Monuments
Memorial to Harry Hill Bandholtz
Memorial for the liberation of Hungary from Nazi occupation in World War II by the Red Army
Memorial to the victims of the Nazi occupation in World War II
Memorial to Ronald Reagan
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Road connection
The following streets lead into the square, the green area of which completely encompasses the surrounding street Szabadság tér :
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Transportation
The route of the M2 metro line (red line) runs under Szabadság tér , which is southeast of its “Kossuth Lajos tér” station, about the same distance as the “Arany János utca” metro stop of the M3 metro line (blue line). From 1911 to 1941, the south side of Szabadság tér was touched by a tram line that ran from the Ostbahnhof (Keleti pu.) To Dózsa György út. Today the nearest tram stop (Danube bank line 2: Közvágohíd - Jászai Mari tér) is located northwest of the square at Kossuth Lajos tér, opposite the parliament building . Due to its central location, however, there are a large number of bus stations (megállók) in the streets around the square, which itself is not directly served by public transport. The closest ones are northeast in Hold utca (lines 5, 15), southeast in Arany János utca ( trolleybus 72, 73), south in Arany János utca (Hercegprímás utca megálló: 15, 115), west in Nádor utca ( Széchenyi utca megálló: 15, 115), to the northwest at Kossuth Lajos tér (15, 115) and to the north in Báthory utca (trolleybus 70, 78) and in Szemere utca (Batthyány-örökmécses megálló: 15, 115).
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Lipót underground car park
To the northwest of the square, via Vécsey utca, and on its south side, underground parking spaces for the Lipót Mélygarázs on 4 levels are accessible.
Rákosi bunker
In 1952, a bunker was built parallel to Budapest metro line 2 approx. 40 m below ground, which extends from the northwest to the southeast between Zoltán utca and Szabadság tér. Named after the Stalinist dictator of Hungary, Mátyás Rákosi , the bunker is structurally and technically intact, albeit in poor condition, and has an underground station in the southeast and a connection to metro line 2, which was built in 1966, and thus a direct connection to the long-distance railway lines via the Ostbahnhof (Keleti pu.). The main entrance to the underground tunnel system was in the back yard of Steindl Imre utca 12 (behind the former stock exchange building), but it was demolished in 2009. On Szabadság tér there is still a covered ventilation opening as an emergency exit.
Web links
- When the demolition of the new building began (Hungarian)
- Site plan of the new building on the current street and square grid
Individual evidence
- ^ Barbara Olszańska, Tadeusz Olszański, Craig Turp: Hungary . DK Pub., New York / London 2010, ISBN 978-0-7566-7425-0 (English, reprinted with revisions.).
- ↑ a b The removal of the new building . in: Supplement to "Pester Lloyd" of November 29, 1891 ( Anno digitalisat )
- ↑ a b c Compare the biographies of Podmaniczky Frigyes , Gerlóczy Károly and Károly Vécsey on the Hungarian Wikipedia.
- ^ "Pester Lloyd" of February 14, 1892, p. 10 ( Anno digitalisat )
- ^ "Pester Lloyd" of October 23, 1897, p. 5 ( Anno digitalisat )
- ↑ Since the construction of the Szent László Church in Kőbánya (1894–1899), the Geological Institute at Stefánia út 14 (XIV.) And the Post Office Savings Bank, the government had officially spoken out against the Hungarian secession , which Lechner subsequently did not received more public contracts.
- ↑ This statue honors the American general's commitment to defending the Hungarian National Museum against looting by Romanian troops in 1919.
- ↑ More information about the sculptor Péter Párkányi and the monument itself can be found on the Hungarian Wikipedia.
- ^ German imperial eagle attacks. Hungary erects controversial monument. N-TV . July 20, 2014, accessed March 11, 2019.
- ^ Controversy over the Nazi occupation memorial in Budapest. Salzburg news . April 13, 2014, accessed March 11, 2019.
- ↑ Image of the protest memorial on depositphotos.com. November 6, 2015, accessed March 11, 2019.
- ↑ Compare the Hungarian website BKV stations about Szabadság tér .
- ↑ Secret places in Budapest: The Rákosi bunker on the website: Hungarian Voice - Hungary News .
Coordinates: 47 ° 30 ′ 13.2 ″ N , 19 ° 3 ′ 3 ″ E