Statue of King Matthias of Hungary
History
The statue is the most famous work of Fadrusz János, the highlight of his career. Winner of the gold medal at the 1900 Paris World Exhibition, the group of bronze statue became one of the symbols of the hometown of King Matthias I of Hungary.
The Unitarian pastor Dr. Nagy Lajos from Kolozsvár came up with the idea of preparing the birth town of King Matthias with the erection of a large-scale statue for the upcoming millennium celebrations. As a result of a nationwide collection, by July 1892 the capital of the statue fund exceeded 120 000 crowns. The Emperor himself was at the forefront of the donation.
Although the town would have liked to have the monument ready for the celebrations of the Hungarian Millennium, Fadrusz János was still working on the monument to Maria Theresa in Pozsony, and on 30 September 1896 only the foundation stone could be laid.
The statue of King Matthias was unveiled in the main square of Kolozsvár on 12 October 1902 at 10 a.m. Some say that the Emperor was absent from the unveiling because the Habsburg flag is also displayed on the monument's pedestal among the military insignia of the defeated armies.
In 1941-42, after the Second Vienna Award, the Hungarian town administration, personally the mayor Dr. Keledy Tibor, entrusted the restoration of the statue to Kósa-Huba Ferenc. As a result of the renovation, the pedestal bore the re-carved original coat of arms of King Matthias and the original Hungarian inscription "Mátyás király".
In 2006, the Hungarian and Romanian governments decided to jointly restore the statue, with the costs estimated at €800 000 to be shared equally. However, the restoration work was delayed. The restoration was led by sculptor-restorer Kolozsi Tibor. During the restoration, the original inscription "Mátyás király", engraved in 1902, was replaced by "Mathias Rex", and the royal coat of arms was not restored.
The Romanians felt insulted by the Moldavian flag thrown on the pedestal in homage to Matthias. The conflicts over the monument can be partly explained by the different interpretations of the relationship between King Matthias and Moldavia. The most glorious period in the history of Moldavia was the reign of the Moldavian prince Stephen III, who was also referred to by his contemporaries as 'the Great'. When Stephen came to the throne, Moldavia was dependent on both the Lithuanian Principality and the Kingdom of Hungary, and paid tribute to the Ottoman Sultan. In 1467, mainly to suppress the tax rebellion of the nobility, which had broken out mainly because of Matthias' financial reforms and the increasing tax burden, Matthias marched to Transylvania and also launched a campaign against his vassal, the Moldavian prince. At the Battle of Moldvabánya, Stephen defeated Matthias's army and Matthias himself was wounded, but the Moldavian army was subsequently repulsed. In truth, the Vlachs (now Romanians) had been able to settle in Moldavia only a century earlier because Louis the Great, King of Hungary, had driven the Tatars out.
After the Romanian invasion in 1918, several memorial plaques and statues in Kolozsvár were removed. First, the royal coat of arms of King Matthias was removed from its pedestal. Several times, plans to destroy or move the group of statues were mooted. In the spring of 1919, Romanian peasants from Erdőfelek tried to pull the horse from its pedestal with oxen, and in 1921 a replica of the Capitoline Wolf, a gift from the Roman municipal authorities, was erected opposite it. In 1922, the idea of placing the statue in the courtyard of Matthias' birthplace and replacing it with a statue of Avram Iancu, whose men slaughtered thousands of Hungarian civilians, was made public, which caused a great outcry among Hungarians. The town still had a Hungarian majority at that time. In 1932, a Romanian inscription was placed on its pedestal with the following text: "Victorious in war, defeated by his own nation in Baia, when he tried to conquer invincible Moldova." It is a reference to the Romanian origin of King Matthias falsely spread by Romanian propaganda.
In 1940, following the Second Vienna Award, which returned the town to Hungary, the statue was restored to its 1902 state; the Capitoline Wolf was removed.
In 1945, after the Soviet and Romanian occupation, King Matthias's crowned coat of army was removed and the Hungarian inscription "Mátyás király" was replaced by its Latin equivalent (Mathias rex). In 1992, Mayor Gheorghe Funar, infamous for his hatred towards Hungarian, reinstalled the 1932 plaque under the Mathias rex inscription.
After the restoration, unknown persons also placed a bronze plaque with a quote from the Romanian historian Nicolae Iorga in the grassy garden surrounding the pedestal. However, Romanian heritage protection experts have taken note of the incident and have asked the mayor to remove the plaque, which was placed without a building permit. According to the mayor of the town, Sorin Apostu, the plaque was placed legally, in compliance with the approved restoration plan, and its placement is a historical reparation. National Liberal Party (PNL) MP Horea Uioreanu said that King Matthias should be depicted on the horse with an arrow placed in the backside. The statue has since been vandalised several times by unknown persons.
According to tradition, the minor figures on the monument are said to be the leaders of the Black Army, Magyar Balázs and his son-in-law Kinizsi Pál on the left, and Szapolyai István and Báthory István on the right. The side figures paying homage to the king hold the Turkish, German, Viennese, Bosnian, Czech-Moravian, Polish and Moldavian flags won in victorious battles.