What it shows.
Emperor Franz Joseph lounging in a hammock, with his hat in his lap.
Franz Joseph in a hammock. Photo: Globetrotter19, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Why here.
Liberty Bridge opened in 1896 as Franz Joseph Bridge and was renamed after the Second World War. The emperor has taken his bridge back, padlocked to its railing like the love locks on Budapest’s bridges.
The statue’s own story.
Placed in May 2021, the first new miniature after the pandemic lockdowns. A video showed him travelling to the bridge strapped to a bicycle.