Iconic Heroes’ Square statue being renewed: here’s what its time capsule contained, PHOTOS

A replica of the Archangel Gabriel statue, which was removed from Heroes’ Square for restoration, has been put on display at the Városliget Visitor Center, where the public can learn more about the work and its history. Here’s what the time capsule found in the column head contained.

By HellóMagyar, our Hungarian partner site.

Iconic Heroes’ Square statue’s replica in Budapest’s City Park

The exhibition, which opened on Wednesday, marks the comprehensive restoration of the Archangel Gabriel statue. For the first time in 120 years, the statue on Heroes’ Square has been removed from its place so that it can be completely renovated, said Benedek Gyorgyevics, CEO of Városliget Plc., at the opening of the pop-up exhibition on Wednesday.
He emphasised that the condition of the approximately five-meter-tall bronze statue has drastically deteriorated, as previous renovations only carried out aesthetic interventions on it, so a complete restoration has by now become essential.

Benedek Gyorgyevics emphasised that in order to ensure that visitors to the capital do not have to be without the angel during the restoration, a special experience space has been created in the building of the Museum of Ethnography, where those interested can take part in an interactive and spectacular journey through time.

Gábor Móczár, Director General of the National Heritage Institute, which performs administrative and control tasks related to the national memorial site, emphasised that over the past 120 years, not only the exterior of the statue but also its structure has been damaged to such an extent that its preservation is not only a cultural obligation but also a safety necessity, therefore its removal as soon as possible was inevitable.

He explained that the team of experts entrusted with the restoration is reviewing and renovating the statue with the most modern technologies and with the utmost thoroughness down to the smallest detail. He said that the biggest challenge is restoring the internal structural condition of the work, as only the external surfaces were treated during previous repairs, so the internal fixings and the bronze and steel structures must be assessed as thoroughly as possible.

“Our goal is to restore the statue not only visually but also structurally to its original condition, which will last for at least another 120 years.” In the first phase of the work, a huge scaffolding system was built around the 36-meter-tall column, which made it possible to carry out a detailed on-site survey of the statue and prepare it for removal. Hungary’s largest mobile crane was used for the work, as the bronze Gabriel statue is approximately five meters tall and has a significant weight.

The backbone of the exhibition is seven projection stations, which evoke the creation of the monument and the decades before and after it through archival recordings, cutouts and other visual creations. The exhibition also includes an interactive selfie point, where visitors can take pictures of themselves in front of a replica of the Archangel Gabriel statue.

Here’s what the time capsule contained

Another part of the experience space is the wall-projected installation, where visitors can virtually go up to Archangel Gabriel and see how the angel spends a day at a height of 36 meters with the panorama of Budapest in the background through the statue’s eyes.

The exhibition also features a time capsule found during the restoration of the Millennium Monument’s column head. In the concreting under the top stone element of the column head, between two anchoring irons, a wine bottle was hidden 120 years ago, containing a rolled-up piece of paper and eight contemporary coins. The glass may have broken during installation, so the paper has become completely unreadable due to the moisture absorbed during the drying of the concrete, but the coins have retained their historical value and can be seen in the exhibition.

The Millennium Monument was completed in connection with the thousandth anniversary of the Hungarian conquest of 1896. The column hall dreamed up by architect Albert Schickedanz and the sculpture group created by sculptor György Zala both symbolise the heyday of Hungarian statehood and the compromise with the Habsburg dynasty.

The statue’s condition was bad

The central element of the monument is the five-meter Gabriel statue on a 36-meter-high stone column, which holds the Hungarian apostolic double cross and the Holy Crown, and won the grand prize at the 1900 Paris World Exhibition. The work of sculptor György Zala was inaugurated on October 24, 1901.

Gábor Móczár recalled that during the first restoration phase in 1995-1996, only the aesthetic reconstruction of the statue group of the Seven Chieftains and Gabriel’s statue was carried out, and the structural elements were not dealt with at that time. The works carried out in 2021 before the International Eucharistic Congress were limited to surface cleaning and re-patination, but experts then faced deeper structural problems caused by corrosion, which threatened the long-term survival of the statue.

During the current reconstruction works, the bronze elements are being restored in the workshop, together with the decorations of the Corinthian capital that supports the statue. During the preparations for the restoration, the original condition was documented with 3D scanning, and currently, a thorough restoration examination of the statue is taking place in the workshop in order for the experts to decide with what tools and techniques they can restore the 120-year-old work as soon as possible.

Depending on the results of the examination, the restoration of the statue is expected to begin in the spring and the statue may be returned to Heroes’ Square by the spring of 2026. Further details and information to help you visit the exhibition The Gabriel Statue of Heroes’ Square are available on the Liget Budapest website.

Read the Hungarian version of this article HERE.

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