‘Liberty Sq’, one of the largest in Budapest, is a few minutes’ walk northeast of Széchenyi István tér. As you enter you’ll pass a delightful fountain that works on optical sensors and turns off and on as you approach or back away from it. In the centre of the square is a Soviet army memorial , the last of its type still standing in the city.
On the eastern side is the fortress-like US Embassy, now cut off from the square by high metal fencing and concrete blocks. It was here that Cardinal József Mindszenty sought refuge after the 1956 Uprising and stayed for 15 years until departing for Vienna in 1971. The embassy backs onto Hold utca (Moon St), which, until 1990, was named Rosenberg házaspár utca (Rosenberg Couple St) after the American husband and wife Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who were executed as Soviet spies in the US in 1953.
A controversial statue of Miklós Horthy, Hungary's intra-war leader called a hero by the right wing but reviled as a fascist dictator by many others, was unveiled in front of the Homecoming Presbyterian Church (Hazatérés Református Templom) in the square's southwest corner in late 2013.
