The Bloody Thursday Memorial

The Memorial commemorates one of the most shocking events of the ’56 Revolution in Hungary: On October 25, now known to Hungarians as Bloody Thursday peaceful protesters congregated at the Parliament Building. To quell the mounting demonstration, Soviet troops and state secret police opened fire on the crowd of several thousand people. Some of the fleeing protesters took shelter behind the façade of the Ministry of Agriculture Building’s colonnade, and as a result, their pursuers fired in their direction, scarring the structure’s exterior in the process. It’s unclear how many died during the massacre at Kossuth Lajos Square—sources vary, citing between 22 and 1000 deaths. Today, dozens of bronze balls, each only slightly smaller than a tennis ball, demarcate where bullet holes from the revolution once riddled the outer wall of the building’s arcade.