Sentiments

A little blurry perhaps in twilight, this is a statue of Hungary's president during the 1956 revolution - Imre Nagy. A man of small stature, he was placed on this footbridge and his image is preserved for the future on a somewhat grander scale. This tiny square is close to the parliament (he is keeping an eye on it), close to the US Embassy and the Danube.

An interesting footnote to this is that the man who rode into Budapest on the Russian occupying tanks and remained the leader in Hungary to the bitter end of communism - Janos Kadar - had ordered the execution of Nagy. That not being quite enough, had him buried wrapped in barbed wire and face down. During the decades since the liberalization of Hungary, the remains of Nagy had been re-buried properly. On the other hand, if I remember correctly, sometime during 2007, the grave of Kadar had been vandalized and his and his wife's bones had been taken from the grave.