The Mária Immaculata column created by Antal Hörger, standing in Mária Square in the 1st district, will be renewed with funding from the Budapest Gallery. According to the Budavár Local Council, the renovation of the memorial column will be carried out in two phases: last autumn, the upper part of the work was restored together with the statue, and now the pedestal of the column will be renovated.

The upper part of the work, with the statue, was restored last year (Photo: Balázs Both/pestbuda.hu)

The pedestal is being renovated (Photo: Budavár Local Council)

The Mária Immaculata column in Mária Square in Buda was erected in 1724 by a citizen of Buda after a plague. The statue originally stood on Bomba (now Batthyány) Square; then it was demolished in 1826 when a military guardhouse was built. (The guardhouse was demolished during the flood protection works at the end of the 19th century.) 

The Mary Immaculata Memorial Column was re-erected in its present location in 1934 when Mária Square was called Irma Square.

The marble plaque on the pedestal of the column also states that the former Irma Square was named Mária Square in honour of the statue (Photo: Balázs Both/pestbuda.hu)

The upper part of the statue was stolen in the spring of 1938. It was recarved by Lajos Visnyovszky and then damaged in 1945 during the siege. It was recarved again and in 1984 by Péter Szomolányi.

The work was originally more ornate: Mary holding the child Jesus was surrounded by Saint Catherine of Siena and John of Nepomuk. When the statue was removed from its original place, Bomba Square, the side figures were placed in the garden of the Fő Street Convent of the Capuchins and then lost. 

Cover photo: The Mária Square memorial column (Photo: Both Balázs / pestbuda.hu)