In this large square, on 23rd October 1989 a huge crowd massed, that had come to celebrate the proclamation of the Hungarian Republic. The star which decorated the tip of the arrow on the dome was then taken down. The square bears the name of Lajos Kossuth, one of the heads of the war of independence in 1848-1849. Opposite, on the other side of the square, a statue of Ferenc Rákóczi II on horseback, a hero of the 1703-1711 war against the Hapsburgs.