Liberty Square occupies the site of a Habsburg barracks so despised that Hungarians demolished it the moment they could. It was here, in October 1849, that Austrian authorities executed Count Lajos Batthyány, Hungary's first Prime Minister, for his role in the failed revolution. An eternal flame now marks the spot.
The square that replaced this "Hungarian Bastille" became a stage for 20th century geopolitics. A statue of American General Harry Bandholtz honours the officer who, armed only with a riding crop, faced down Romanian soldiers attempting to loot the National Museum in 1919. Nearby, a Soviet obelisk commemorating World War II liberation stands within sight of Ronald Reagan's bronze likeness, creating what locals call Budapest's strangest triangle.
VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours trace the square's layers of contested memory, explaining how a place of execution became a showcase for the ideological battles that shaped modern Hungary.