Basically, you just have to start wandering aimlessly around the streets of any Hungarian town, and chances are that you will bump into some valuable works. Whether you want to find the statues of famous historical figures or artists, or discover funny mini sculptures, the interactive art map on kozterkep.hu will be a great help. But what are the works of arts that you should be looking for?
Historic monuments
The eventful centuries, victorious and darker periods of Hungarian history are often depicted in works of art found on the streets. The statue of Saint Stephen and Gisela (by József Ispánki) erected in Veszprém in 1938 commemorates the founding of the Hungarian state. You will find statues or reliefs of the founder of the Hungarian state and his wife elsewhere as well, for example in Tihany, Szeged, Kapuvár and Zalaegerszeg. There are several street statues of King Matthias around the country, e.g. in Pécs, Szeged, Győr and Budapest. The Millennium Memorial on Heroes’ Square is essentially a giant summary of the greatest figures in Hungarian history, starting with the chieftains of the seven Hungarian tribes, through King Louis I of Hungary up to Lajos Kossuth. Almost every Hungarian town has a memorial of the 1956 Revolution. All Hungarian towns and villages have some kind of religious work of art. One of the most notable ones is the recently revealed Blessing Jesus statue in Tarcal, which is the tallest granite statue of Christ in Europe, and if you stand next to it, you will have a beautiful view of the land around it.
The darker periods of our history are commemorated by the sculpture of shoes on the bank of the Danube set up to remind everyone of the victims of the Holocaust. The joint work of film director Can Togay and sculptor Gyula Pauer was selected as the second most memorable street statue in the world in 2016. The memorial by Attila F. Kovács erected in front of the House of Terror Museum in Budapest evokes the memories of the Cold War period.