The Extraterrestrial Locations
Asteroid 2985 Shakespeare was first seen in 1962 and confirmed as an asteroid on October 12th 1983 by the American astronomer Edward L. G. Bowell. He was principal investigator of the Lowell Observatory Near-Earth-Object Search (LONEOS) and discovered a total of 572 asteroids, some of them before he joined the LONEOS project.
It is a small asteroid of the type Koronis. This family of approximately 300 asteroids lies in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter. It is thought that they are the remnants of a collision between 2 larger objects at least 2 billion years ago.
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The Shakespeare crater is a 370 km diameter impact basin in the Shakespeare quadrangle of Mercury, which is named after this crater. It is the fourth largest of all the named craters on Mercury, most of which are named after writers and artists.
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Mercury is divided into a series of quadrangles for mapping purposes. The Shakespeare Quadrangle runs from 90 to 180° longitude and 20 to 70° latitude.
The Mariner 10 spacecraft made three passes over this area between 1974 and 1975. The average resolution of the pictures is just over 1 km.
The Statue
This statue is located on the promenade along the River Danube on the Pest side of the city and is a replica of an original statue in Ballarat, Australia.
It stands on a raised platform at the entrance to the Bank es Biztositas and has a long inscription which tells the complete story of how it came to be placed here.
“The original of this statue, which depicts the Bard as an actor bowing to his audience, was created in 1960 by renowned Hungarian-born Australian sculptor, Andor Meszaros (Budapest, 1900; Melbourne 1972), for the Australian City of Ballarat.
This thriving city, founded during the Gold Rush in the 1850s, is a cultural centre in Victoria that takes pride in its history and rich heritage. In addition to the statue by Andor Meszaros, Ballarat has other Hungarian links to boast. Writer György Sarközy has a novel of his set here, and the First Gold Medal claimed by the Hungarian team during the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games were won here by kayakers János Urbányi and Laszló Fábián.
On visiting Australia in 1998, Dr. Károly Nagy, a retired attorney and an admirer of Shakespeare, envisaged that a replica be made of the statue and be erected in Budapest. On returning to Hungary he founded the Shakespeare Statue Committee and began to raise funds for the project. His plans went into fruition when in 2002, with the approval of the city of Ballarat, the moulding was organised on site under the guidance of Andor Meszaros’ son, Michael, who is also a sculptor. The casting was done at the Foundry of Hungarian sculpter, Gábor Mihály.
Fundraising was organised in Australia, Hungary and England; contributions came from friends, relatives and associations; two-thirds of the costs were borne by Andor Meszaros’ widow, Elizabeth and their two sons, Michael and Daniel.
May the statue serve as a spiritual link among the discerning public in Australia, Hungary, Great Britain and visitors to Budapest from countries around the world.
Erected on the 23rd of April 2003, the 439th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth and the 387th anniversary of his death.”