Skanderbeg statue to be placed in Budapest

TIRANA, Dec. 7 – A statue of Albania’s national hero, Skanderbeg, will be placed in one of the main squares of Budapest in 2012, when Albania celebrates its 100th anniversary of independence. The announcement was made by Hungary’s Parliament Speaker Laszlo Kover during a meeting with his Albanian counterpart Jozefina Topalli in Budapest this week.
The placing of the Skanderbeg statue on November 28, 2012 will celebrate Albania’s 100th anniversary of independence and the 90th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Albania and Hungary.
The Hungarian Parliament Speaker also extended his condolences to the death of self-proclaimed King Leka Zogu I, whose mother Countess Geraldine Apponyi de Nagy-Apponyi, a Roman Catholic aristocrat was half-Hungarian and half-American.
A national hero and a symbol of resistance, also used by Renaissance writers, Skanderbeg successfully managed to keep the Ottoman army away from Albania for more than 20 years in the 15th century.