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Published: August 15th 2018
Fooling around with a statue
Well, this statue is asking for this treatment, isn't it?Statues seem to be the thing in Budapest
When we spot something that we think sticks out or is special in a place we occasionally dedicate an entire blog to this. We think of these as theme blogs. This selection of "theme" is made in a totally non-scientific way. It's only what we personally find interesting and what pops up in our minds when we try to absorb everything at once. Examples of these "theme blogs" are
Bulgaria - monuments Kotor, Montenegro - balconies Sur, Oman - doors Cuba - Yank Tanks Rome, Italy - fountains In Budapest we noticed that there are many statues. Statues aren't by any means unique for Budapest because in most large cities there are statues. What makes the statues in Budapest special is that many of them are either bit funny, depict people you don't expect to find a statue of in Hungary or is historically very interesting.
Funny statues One of the two statues we think of as "Funny statues" depicts an overweight policeman. It is said that if you rub his tummy it brings good luck.
People we didn't expect to find a statue of in Hungary In
Overweight policeman
One of the two statues which we have labelled "Funny statues" depicts an overweight policeman. It is said that if you rub his tummy it brings good luck
Budapest we found three statues in the category "people we don't expect to find a statue of in Hungary". These three are:
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Peter Falk - American actor best known for his role as Detective Columbo. This statue can be found on Falk Miksa Utca which translates as Michael Falk Street. The actor's complete name was Peter Michael Falk. In the US he was known as "Peter Falk" but in Hungary it seems they prefer calling him "Michael Falk".
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Bud Spencer - Italian actor whose real name was Carlo Pedersoli. He is famous for the movies he made together with Terence Hill.
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Ronald Reagan - President of the United States from 1981 to 1989.
Traditional statues Liberty statue - stands on top of Gellert Hill from which the views over the city are astonishing.
Raoul Wallenberg statue - raised to the memory of Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish diplomat who during the German occupation saved thousands of Jews from being deported to concentration camps.
Controversial statue Strictly this is better described as a monument than as a statue. It is called memorial to the Victims of the German Invasion, and the controversy
Peter Falk
Peter Falk is an American actor best known for his role as Detective Columbo lies in the symbolism used. It can be argued that the monument blames only Nazi Germany for the atrocities played out during the occupation whereas in fact many Hungarians actively took part in killing and/or deporting the Hungarian Jews.
Memento Park In 1989 the communists lost their power in Hungary and the country became a democracy. The communists left behind many monuments honouring communist leaders or the communist idea. They wanted to remove these monuments since they reminded the Hungarians of the hated totalitarian regime. The same thing happened all over the Eastern Europe and in most cases the statues ended up in the city dump. In Budapest they did things slightly differently.
They dismantled the monuments and reerected them in the outskirts of town thus creating an open air museum.
Soviet heroic memorial Again something which is better described as a monument than as a statue. We add it anyway because we want to point out that it is an oddity. It is a Communist era monument which still stands in its original place in central Budapest. It was neither destroyed not moved to Memento Park in 1989.
Of course these are not
Carlo Pedersoli/Bud Spencer
Italian actor better known under the name Bud Spencer. He is famous for the movies he made together with Terence Hill. all the statues you can find in Budapest, it is only a small sample. Tripadvisor lists over 300 statues and monuments and not even that is a complete list. It could be interesting to hunt down some of these but trying to find them all is not something we recommend anyone to do.
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RENanDREW
Ren & Andrew
Columbo
I read about this statue before we travelled there... and if I'd known Fang was also included, I would have definitely visited it! The blog I read suggested that Peter Falk was a descendant of Miksa Falk (the Hungarian politician), hence the statue on that street. Not sure how true that is though :)