Photos

Sitting at spring sunlight

The statue of queen Elisabeth of Hungary near the Danube in Budapest. The statue of Queen Elizabeth was made by György Zala and Rezső Hikish and originally the statue was introduced in 1932 to the public.

Queen Elizabeth

Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria, later Empress Elisabeth of Austria (24 December 1837 – 10 September 1898) was Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia as spouse of Emperor Francis Joseph I. From an early age, she was called “Sisi” by family and friends. Despite her exceptional beauty, intelligence, and kindness she led an unhappy domestic life, which was marred, moreover, by family tragedies (notably the death of her only son, Archduke Rudolf, and the death of one of her sisters in the charity bazaar fire in Paris, 1897). Independent and unconventional, she avoided the stiff etiquette of the Viennese court and spent much of her time abroad, chiefly on Corfu. She was assassinated by the Italian anarchist Luccheni in Geneva, Switzerland.

György Zala (1858, Alsólendva - 1937, Budapest)

Sculptor. A significant representative of official art at the turn of the century. After leaving the School of Industrial Design, he was a pupil of E. Hellmer at the Vienna Academy, later attended the Academy in Munich where Witmann and Wagmüller were his masters. He was more attracted by French and Belgian masters. His first remarkable work was "Mary and Magdalene", a marble statue (1884), later he completed "The Martyrs of Arad" (1894), an unfinished statue of Adolf Huszár, which was then followed by a long series of memorials ("Soldier" 1889-93, the equestrian statue of Gyula Andrássy, Millennium Memorial together with six other sculptors and Albert Schikedanz, an architect, 1894-1929, "Queen Elizabeth", 1932, "Statue of István Tisza" together with Antal Orbán in 1934, since then demolished, and "The Statue of Ferenc Deák", Szeged).
He modelled portraits ("Bust of Antal Ligeti" 1887, female portraits and portraits of great personalities ("Franz Josef I", "Ferenc Deák", etc.) and tombs ("József Csukássy" 1893). He was the most significant master of neo-baroque memorials. His art shows great skills, baroque movements, pathos and picturesque portrayals. Thirty of his statues are in the possession of the Hungarian National Gallery. (Source: Vendégváró & budapestguide)