Embassy in Budapest

I've been interested in the security at U.S. Embassies. As a Fulbrighter, we received an e-mail this fall with security alerts from the U.S. State Department. Nothing was surprising, but it seemed concerned about terrorist threats at embassies around the world. The Bratislava Embassy is surrounded by heavy fences, barriers to stop truck bombers, and plenty of guards roaming the grounds.

The Embassy in Budapest is located on a lovely park-like square, Szabadság tér ("Freedom Square") and looks perfectly normal from a distance. It's the pale yellow buiding on the left.

Closer up, you notice sturdy blue pillars of the sort they use to stop truck bombers surrounding the entire building and grounds. At least it's an attractive, discrete form of security.

Just to the south of the Embassy is a statue of a U.S. General from World War I, Harry Hill Bandholtz. I had never heard of him either. With a little Googling help, I discovered that he was a hero to the Hungarians after the war for stopping the Romanians from looting the National Museum in Budapest. After the Communists came to power here after World War II, the statue was removed from the park for "repairs." Forty years later, after the fall of Communism, it was returned to its original location here.

NOTE: Click on any image in this blog to see it full-size.