Alajos Stróbl

Who was Alajos Stróbl?

Alojs Stróbl was a Hungarian sculptor and artist. His work is characterised by sensitive realistic modelling and he became one of the most renowned sculptors of memorials in Hungary at the turn of the 20th century.

Born on 21 June 1856 at Červený Kút pri Kráľovej Lehote, a village near Liptovský Hrádok, Slovakia, Strobl was a pupil of K. Zumbusch between 1876 and 1880. He was a young sculptor when his statue of Perseus gained him widespread attention in Hungary.

He created two statues for the façade and two sitting figures for the entrance of the Opera. From then on, he became the most popular sculptor in Hungary of memorials. He sculpted the figure of János Arany in the grounds of the Hungarian National Museum in 1893 and the Matthias Fountain in Buda Castle in 1904. Stróbl also made two funeral statues for the Hungarian branch of the Habsburg family which are in the Palatinal Crypt of Buda Castle.

In 1906 he sculpted the equestrian statue of St. Stephen in the Fischer Bastion. That same year, he also completed the Semmelweis Memorial, which is now featured at the Rókus Hospital.