Statue of Maria Theresa (formerly Coronation Hill)

The twice-life-size statue was inaugurated on May 16, 1897, in the presence of Franz Joseph, Franz Ferdinand, Archduchess Stephanie and Archduke Frederick, who lived in Bratislava. ; The inscription 'VITAM ET SANGUINEM' (Our Life and Blood) was read on the front of the pedestal, and on the back was 'Elevated in the thousandth year of the existence of Hungary by the King in memory of the coronations by the public of the Royal City of Bratislava 1896'. At the bottom of the statue was a document, which was edited by Kálmán Thaly, Member of Parliament and a full member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences: ; "During the glorious reign of His Imperial and Apostolic Royal Majesty Franz Joseph I of the Hungarian State and the prime ministership of Baron Dezső Bánffy of Losonczi, in 1896, celebrating the thousand-year anniversary of His Majesty's coronation, the public of the royal city of Bratislava, on the day of the quarter-century anniversary of His Majesty's coronation: in its ceremonial assembly held on June 8, 1892, at the proposal of Károly Neiszidler, a member of parliament, unanimously decided with patriotic enthusiasm to have a worthy monument erected on the site of the former coronation hill on the sublime occasion of the millennium celebration. This monument was created under the mayorship of Gusztáv Dröxler, royal councilor, according to the plans and work of the academic sculptor János Fadrusz, a native of this city, and was completed in 1896, in honor of the highest person of our glorified Majesty the King, the In the presence of the members of His Majesty the Sovereign House, the Hereditary Primate and his ensigns, the members of both houses of the legislature and the government, the public of the city of Bratislava, the representatives of the legislative authorities, the universities of science, the University of Technology, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and other invited cultural institutions, a distinguished host of guests from home and abroad and an innumerable public, on May 16, 1897, inaugurated with great ceremony, with its granite pedestal and marble statues, it is to proudly symbolize for all time the permanent, inviolable sanctity of the royal oath and the laws and to remind us of the symbolic royal sword cuts directed from this place to the four corners of the world during the coronation ceremonies, and especially to the soul-lifting memory of Hungarian patriotism, Hungarian respect for the law and that unbreakable loyalty with which this nation was left orphaned and The charming, young Queen, Maria Theresa of glorious memory, attacked from half the world, her shaky throne and her noble family, entrusted to the chivalrous protection of the Hungarians, at the urging of the autumn Palatine Count János Pálffy of Erdőd, with unprecedented enthusiasm, sacrificing "life and blood", with world-gazing valor, she saved and repelled her fierce enemies. ; Memorial statue, You, the herald of Hungarian loyalty, Hungarian heroism, Hungarian chivalry and respect for the law, You, the herald of ancient Hungarian virtues turned into stone, stand steadfast! Stand for eternity! Stand, while the thousand-year-old, beloved homeland stands!" ; According to some opinions, the artist modeled himself in one of the side figures of the statue. ; The most beautiful monument of the city of Bratislava, which was admired by contemporaries, is unfortunately no longer visible. It was not removed from its place by urban planning considerations or a political decision, but by unbridled vandalism and nationalist hatred. On October 26-27, 1921, under cover of night, a group of blinded Czechoslovak legionnaires toppled it and smashed it to pieces beyond recognition with iron rods. The largest piece of marble that remained intact, the horse's trunk, was used to carve the statue of the Slovak nationalist politician Tyrš. The fragments of the monument were hidden by the Hungarians in Bratislava for years, and eventually some of them ended up in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. The heads of the two secondary figures were the best preserved, the other fragments are almost unrecognizable. A piece of the statue continued to live as a relic for a while on another public artwork, the monument erected in 1933 by the 32nd Maria Theresa Infantry Regiment in Budapest. , A piece of the destroyed Maria Theresa statue in Bratislava was placed on a small ledge on the front of the pedestal. The small ledge is still on the pedestal today, but the fragment was lost in the siege of 1945. ; It was replaced in 1972 by Tibor Bártfay, a sculpture group of Ľudovít Štúr, the leader of the Slovak national movement. ; Following the initiative of the Bratislava City Protection Association (BOS), a plan was born to resculpt the statue, and there was every chance that it would be erected again in 2011 on the former Coronation Hill Square. Against the 5,000 supporters, Matica Slovenská collected 11,000 opposing signatures. The return of the statue was decided by the city council of Bratislava in 2012, and they rejected it. ; During his unfortunately short creative career, János Fadrusz (1858-1903) was the designer and constructor of historical monuments in only a few distinguished Hungarian cities. His creations, in contrast to the theatrical monuments of the time, which were exhausted by externalities, are monumentally simple. When he finished his studies at the Vienna Academy, he made a crucifix as an exam paper. In the absence of a model, he had himself tied to a cross, and then worked based on the photographs he took of it. “…and I will become a Hungarian artist someday, if God helps me, and I will make something that will allow me to look at Budapest as well.” He said this modestly, after decades of futile attempts and deprivation, in 1892 he won the thousand-forint grand prize of the National Fine Arts Society with his Christ. Several bronze copies were made of it, and the Hungarian National Gallery and the Móra Ferenc Museum in Szeged each preserve a copy. Later, it was also placed on the artist's tombstone in the Kerepesi Cemetery. ; Fadrusz's first large public work was a statue of Maria Theresa intended for his hometown of Bratislava. In addition to its concise composition and virtuoso details, the sublime beauty of the queen mounted on horseback captivated the viewer. Károly Lyka wrote about the work: "The first Hungarian statue that has epic power and grandeur." They could not admire it for long, because the monument was smashed by Czechoslovak legionnaires and civilians on October 26-27, 1921, which the police unfortunately looked on indifferently. Fadrusz worked on the decoration of the Buda Castle Palace on two occasions. First, in 1897, he carved two opposing load-bearing Atlases from Carrara marble, one and a half times larger than life. In 1901–1902, he modeled the four huge gate-guarding lions, two of which stand inside the gate, ready to bite. His main work – the most successful work of Hungarian monumental sculpture – is considered the statue of King Matthias in front of the St. Michael Church in Cluj-Napoca. The monumentality of the main figure, seated on a majestic and powerful horse, and the moving secondary figures are resolved by naturalistic naturalness and realism. The statue was inaugurated in 1902, after his model was awarded the grand prize at the 1900 Paris World Exhibition. His realism and primal power were also evident in his last work. He created the statue for a sports travel award commissioned by the Buda Gymnastics Association, based on the work of János Arany, entitled “Toldi Miklós with the Wolves”. Fadrusz’s works were characterized by the plastic, realistic depiction of historical personalities and human figures, rich content and formal motifs, monumental but precise modeling imbued with classical spirituality and national sentiment. All this proves that in his art we can respect not only one of the great masters of academic sculpture, but also an artistic individuality that sought new paths and synthesized styles. “I wanted to ask you something, but I forgot among all the other things, i.e. that if you write about my work, please do not compare it with the works of my colleagues and do not abuse Hungarian statues and sculptors. The current generation of sculptors is innocently suffering the sins of the first generation.” (From a letter to Fadrusz, written to Dezső Malonyai.