Almost unbeknownst to virtually anyone, the fragments of a monument commemorating
the liberation of galley slaves by Michiel de Ruyter lay for years in the parking garage of
the Reformed Theological Seminary in Pápa. Originally, this memorial stood in the
courtyard of the military academy, the Zrínyi Miklós Nemzetvédelmi Egyetem (Miklós
Zrínyi Defense University) on Üllői Street in Budapest. It was erected in 2002 to commemorate the liberation of the Hungarian ministers who had been sentenced to the galleys
and were freed by Michiel de Ruyter in Naples in 1676. The monument was designed and
created by Colonel Dr. Lajos Berek, who was also the rector of that university. When this
military academy moved to the campus on the Hungária ring road in 2008, the old building
was sold. The monument was taken down. The Bolyai János Honvéd Alapítvány (János
Bolyai Defense Foundation) donated the memorial to the Protestáns Tábori Püspökség
(Protestant Military Diocese). The new owner would look for a new location for the statue.
Since there was no place to put it up again at that time, they looked for a place where it
could be stored “temporarily.” That place was the parking garage of the Reformed
Theological Seminary in Pápa.