PHOTOS: Let’s discover the wonderful world of Kolodko mini statues in Budapest by bike!

Budapest hides a wonderful miniature statue collection, scattered all around the city. Discovering them by bike could be your next awesome programme in the Hungarian capital.

Budapest hides almost 30 miniature statues scattered all around the city, made by Transcarpathian Hungarian-Ukrainian artist Mihály Kolodko.

The sculptures partly commemorate his favourite childhood Hungarian tales, but in addition to the depiction of beloved children’s story characters and famous Hungarian people/inventions, a number of his works have a strong political message.

Discovering all 30 of them can be a bit of a challenge in Budapest. Although there are some organised tours, we decided to take matters into our own hand and came up with a less time-consuming and more fun way by hopping on our bikes.

How long does it take to find the mini statues?

Don’t worry, if you don’t have your own bike: renting a MOL Bubi bike is hassle-free and cheap and can be a good alternative for public transportation in Budapest.

During our quest, we didn’t aim to find all the Kolodko statues, only those in the Budapest downtown area that are easily accessible. Therefore, this article does not include one of Kolodko’s latest works, the Russian warship which was sunk by the Ukrainian forces, nor the “urinal” in the City Park.

Overall, we’ve found 21 Kolodko statues with a similar hub gear bike that can be rented via the MOL Bubi app in 2 hours and 41 minutes, including short breaks hunting down the statues because, well, as the names suggest, they are miniatures, and despite the accurate coordinates in some cases they are hard to spot. We cycled 19.8 kilometres, most of them on bike paths. However, we must note that bicycle infrastructure in Budapest is a bit of a maze compared to other capital cities, and requires some experience to make sense of the intertwining roads and traffic signs.

You can find the exact locations of the statues on Google Maps made by Olyanjó.hu:

The statues:

The statue of Franz Joseph I. on Liberty Bridge.

“Gastro rat”, alias Remy with the Hungarian word “Lecsó” for ratatouille.

The Russians are already in the pantry – a famous catchphrase from the Hungarian movie The Corporal and the Others, a satire about the Second World War and the Russian army.

Főkukac, the always positive giant worm from The Great Angler, a Hungarian tale from the 1980s.

A Rubik’s Cube in Buda, with the parliament building in the background.

Sad tank, commemorating the 1956 Hungarian revolution.

A Trabant made from limestone, is portrayed as a children’s toy.

Dead squirrel. It is placed next to a trash can, behind a real-site statue of detective Columbo.

Skála kópé, a popular Hungarian advertising figure of the 80s in front of the former Skála store.

Lunar rover in the Hold (Moon) street, commemorates Ferenc Pavlics, a Hungarian engineer who worked on the first-ever lunar rover.

Axe, behind Liberty Square’s Russian monument. Originally Kolodko placed an ushanka hat there, which was vandalised with an axe and thrown into the Danube.

Kermit the frog, also in Liberty Square.

Mr Bean’s Teddy bear on the former building of the UK embassy.

Balloon dog with a bone.

Statue of Tivadar Herzl, Hungarian Jewish writer and politician in front of the Dohány street Synagogue.

Statue of Rezső Seress, composer of Gloomy Sunday.

Diver with a key, next to the elegant New York Cafe. Legends has it that a couple of Hungarian writers who adored the cafe wanted to steal its key and throw it into the Danube so that it won’t ever close.

Jenő Rejtő – P. Howard’s 14-carat gold car in the street named after him.

Statue of Hanna Szenes. According to Erre-Arra, in Budapest, only 30 or so statues depict women from 1200. Hanna Szenes was a Jewish writer, and paratrooper solider, who was killed in the Second World War.

Noah’s Ark.

A play on the popular “Back to the future” title, this statue is named “Forward to the past”.

Give a read to our latest guide as well as what to avoid in Hungary as a tourist!