Monument and Tomb of the Martyrs of Arad
tomb / crypt / mausoleum
History
On 6 October 1849, 13 Hungarian military officers (12 generals and 1 colonel) were executed in Arad. The executions were ordered by Haynau after the the Habsburg Empire managed to suppress the Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence with Russian military intervention.
Until the excavations of 1932, when the remains of the martyrs buried at the base of the gallows were found, this place was remembered as the site of executions.
On 16 June 1867, a week after the coronation of Franz Joseph I, a call for the erection of a memorial column was published in the Arad daily newspaper Alföld, by Tiszti Lajos, the editor of the newspaper. In 1867, a 13-branched, withered mulberry tree and a cross were placed in the supposed place of the gallows. In 1871, the first modest memorial stone was erected on the field of Zsigmondháza in their place, under the care of the members of the Arad Defence Association. It was a rectangular carved stone, a foot and a half high, bearing only the date of execution, 6 October 1849.
Also in 1873, the Arad Defence Association had a statue made by Aradi Zsigmond erected in the town's pedestrian square, intended as a memorial to the heroes who fell in 1849.
In 1874, with the support of the patriotic citizens of the town, the National Defence Assembly had a larger stone monument erected on the presumed site of the executions. However, it was also hidden among the crops of the farmland, and the Maros, which had left its bed, covered it with mud and silt.
In 1878, Haeffner Ernő, the Comptroller General of Győr, initiated the construction of a monument on the site of the execution of the martyrs of Arad and the declaration of 6 October as a national day of mourning.
The monument that still stands today was built in 1881. The artificial hill, with 15 steps leading up to the top, highlights the dark grey granite obelisk from the plain. The obelisk was made in the studio of Jablonszky Vince in Budapest. On one side is the date of the day of mourning: 6 October 1849, on the other the names of the thirteen officers, in the order of their execution. Excavations in 1932 succeeded in identifying the remains of the martyrs at the actual site of the execution.
The ashes of all those who were identified in 1932 and all those, who were known to have been burried in Arad County were reburied in small coffins under the obelisk on the 125th anniversary on 6 October 1974. On that occasion, a bilingual white marble plaque was placed. The remains of the martyrs were previously kept in the Museum of the Relics. The remains of Leiningen Westerburg Károly from Borosjenő and Damjanich János and Lahner György from Mácsa were brought to Arad at this time. Kiss Ernő is buried in Elemér (Serbia) and Dessewffy Arisztid in Margonya (Slovakia).
None of the heroes rest in the country for which they gave their lives because of the Trianon Dictate.