The Anonymus Statue, City Park

Budapest · Ungern · Castle

A faceless monk with his hood drawn low sits in the castle courtyard. Touch his pen and the words are said to come. Nobody knows who he was.

In the courtyard of Vajdahunyad Castle sits a figure with no face. The bronze monk is called Anonymus, after the nameless chronicler who wrote the Gesta Hungarorum and whom no historian has managed to identify in eight centuries. The sculptor Miklós Ligeti said he deliberately let the hood swallow the features: what was a secret should remain one. The statue began as a commission for someone else entirely and changed its name mid-work, as if refusing to become anybody in particular. Folk belief has done the rest. Touch the pen in his hand and inspiration is said to follow, and writers with a block come here at dusk. The pen is polished bright while the rest of the bronze stands black. Step close at dusk and you see what Ligeti meant: the hood is empty where the face should be, and the shadow does not fall as it should.

FAQ

Where is The Anonymus Statue, City Park located?

The Anonymus Statue, City Park is in Budapest, Ungern.

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