Castle District - Budapest - page 110

2000 manuscripts. This library allows members (adult/student annual 6500/3500Ft, per six
months 3500/2000Ft, daily per person 1200Ft) to do research, peruse the general stacks and
read the large collection of foreign newspapers and magazines.

SSTATUUES AR S AROUND THE R UND THE ROYAL P AL PAALACCE

To the east of the Habsburg Steps entrance to the palace is a bronze statue from
1905 of theTuuruul, a hawk-like totemic bird that had supposedly impregnated
Emese, the grandmother of Árpád, the chief military commander who led the
Magyar tribes into the Carpathian Basin in about AD 895. To the southeast, just
in front of Building C, stands a statue ofEuugene o f Savoy, the Habsburg prince

who wiped out the last Turkish army in Hungary at the Battle of Zenta in 1697.
Designed by József Róna 200 years later, it is considered to be the finest eques-
trian statue in Budapest. In the middle of the square on the other side of the
building is a statue by György Vastagh of aHHorrttoobágyi c

e of Sa

i csiikós, a Hungarian cow-

boy in full regalia breaking a mighty bábolna steed.

Ilona, the girl featured prominently in the Matthias Fountain, is the protagonist of
a Romantic ballad by poet Mihály Vörösmarty: she fell in love with a dashing
'hunter' - King Matthias - and, upon learning his true identity and feeling un-
worthy, died of a broken heart.

Matthias Fountain
Facing the Royal Palace's large courtyard to the northwest is the Romantic-style Matthias
Fountain (Mátyás kút), portraying the young king Matthias Corvinus in hunting garb. To
the right below him is Szép Ilona (Beautiful Helen). The middle one of the king's three dogs
was blown up during the war; canine-loving Hungarians quickly had an exact copy made.