Even though the main subject of this photograph made in the 1930s is the Downtown Church, our gaze is first captured by the spectacular curve of the building housing the Queen Elizabeth Memorial standing in the foreground. Immediately after the queen’s death in 1898, it was decided that this statue would be erected, and so an act was passed, a commission was formed, and a competition was announced for its design. Unfortunately, the first, second, third, and even fourth rounds of this competition ended without result. It was only in the fifth round that they were able to come to a decision, with the entry of György Zala and Rezső Hikisch winning. The location of where the work would be displayed was also changed several times during the competition. First it was to be placed on the side of the Castle Hill, then at Ybl Miklós Square, and then on Margit Island. It was finally dedicated 34 years after the death of the queen in a ceremony on the 25th of September 1932 with the participation of the regent Miklós Horthy at Eskü Square (present-day Március 15 Square). The memorial did not receive unanimous praise, with neither experts nor the public being fond of it, and the hall erected above it was disliked in particular. István Genthon writes of this in the pages of Magyar Szemle (Hungarian Review), “we believe that we are remaining impartial if we state that Rezső Hikisch’s work in the Historicist style is tasteful, but it is perfectly unsuited and nonsensical in this location.” The building has a monumental feel in our photograph, but in reality it was considered too small in the foreground of the enormous Piarist Building and neither its style nor its scale was in fitting with the statue it housed. The memorial made it through the world war intact but the new socialist system did not agree with the cult of the queen, so the statue was removed in 1953. For a brief time, Alajos Stróbl’s Fisher Girl Fountain replaced it (which was damaged and therefore removed in 1959), and the housing structure was demolished at the beginning of the 1960s due to the construction of the new Erzsébet Bridge and the reorganization of the square.
