Hungarian town mistakes Battle of Mohács monument for a phallus, tears it down

In the Hungarian town of Devecser, a five-metre wooden statue commemorating the 1526 Battle of Mohács was dismantled just days after it went up. The design was generated by artificial intelligence, and the mayor commissioned a woodcarver from the neighbouring village of Bodorfa to bring it to life.

The sculpture was meant to depict a helmeted eagle with outstretched wings — a symbol of military valour and remembrance of the tragic battle. Social media users, however, saw something quite different in the finished piece: the statue was quickly dubbed a "winged phallus" and became the butt of jokes across the internet.

Scandal brought a wave of tourists

Despite — or rather thanks to — the embarrassment, Devecser suddenly found itself in the spotlight, drawing curious visitors from far and wide. One disappointed traveller told RTL television that she and her family had deliberately detoured through Devecser on their way to the city of Pápa, hoping to see the notorious sculpture in person. They arrived too late — the monument had already been taken down.

What the monument was meant to symbolise

The Battle of Mohács in 1526 was a decisive Ottoman victory that led to the collapse of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary. The twenty-year-old king of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, Louis Jagiellon, died fleeing the battlefield — he drowned in the swollen Csele Creek.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz