The national flag will be hoisted full-time in the middle of the square, next to a pool of water intended to reflect the facade of the building, he added. Cars have been banished from the square to an underground car park on the north side of the building and the square will be open to pedestrians and cyclists only with entry prohibited to motorists.

At the top of the threelevel car park a Visitors’ Centre will open to cater for the half a million tourists visiting Parliament each year, he said.

A Museum of Parliament has been designed inside Parliament as well as a memorial site to the 1956 anti-Soviet revolution. A statue of 18th-century statesman Ferenc Rákóczi has been renovated and one of poet Attila József moved to the embankment.

A new statue of 19th-century statesman Lajos Kossuth and eight other figures will be erected and two other statues are planned, of prime ministers Gyula Andrássy and István Tisza, he added.

The project is expected to be completed by late summer.

Source www.hungarymatters.hu

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