Beneath Heroes' Square lies an artesian well, drilled in 1878 to tap the thermal springs that now feed the nearby Széchenyi Baths. The square itself came later, built to mark Hungary's thousandth birthday in 1896, though like many ambitious projects, it ran fashionably late: the Millennium Monument wasn't fully complete until 1929.

The 36-metre column is topped by Archangel Gabriel clutching the Holy Crown, which legend says he offered to St. Stephen in a dream. Around its base, seven mounted chieftains sit astride horses that historians politely describe as "fanciful." The colonnades behind them have seen considerable reshuffling: Habsburg emperors once stood here until the 1919 revolution, when revolutionaries smashed Franz Joseph's statue and draped the entire square in red. In 1989, a quarter of a million people gathered here to rebury Imre Nagy, transforming the square into a symbol of democratic transition.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours trace this complex national story, exploring how the square's statues were quietly swapped out as Hungary's political fortunes shifted, and connecting it to the City Park's thermal baths and fairy-tale castle beyond.