Kossuth Square, Budapest

Kossuth Lajos Square is the ceremonial heart of Hungarian political life, spread before the vast Parliament Building on the Pest bank of the Danube. Named for the leader of the 1848 revolution, it is flanked by the Ethnographic Museum and the Ministry of Agriculture and dotted with statues of national figures. An underground exhibition commemorates the events of 1956, when the square was the scene of dramatic protests. Its wide, formal expanse hosts state ceremonies and flag-raising rituals beneath the Gothic Revival silhouette of Parliament.