The Black Army JZsUK also excelled in the "local" press! King Matthias was also featured on the cover of the 22-season student newspaper of the János Zsigmond Unitarian High School CIPÓ, and in the columns of the newspaper our students wrote articles about the statue and its history under a separate chapter title, and even a student from Hungary published an article about the statue of Matthias in Budapest! And all this in ENGLISH!
OUR ENGLISH ARTICLES, PUBLISHED IN THE NEWSPAPER "CIPÓ", BY STUDENTS OF OUR SCHOOL:
FUN FACTS ABOUT THE MATTHIAS CORVINUS MONUMENT
The Matthias Corvinus Monument is a statue, it’s very famous in Cluj-Napoca. You can find it on the main square of Cluj-Napoca. People just go there and walk, because it’s a very beautiful place. Behind the statue you can see the Szent Mihály church, it’s very famous, too. The statue was built in 1896-1901, and the consecration time was on 12th October 1902, where a lot of people participed. The idea came from Dr. Lajos Nagy, a Unitarian pastor from Cluj. The statue was loaded on August 13 in 1902 for rail transport at the Lipótváros railway station. The 17-piece shipment, weighing 18,815 kilograms, required four railway cars. On August 15, the pieces arrived in Cluj, where they were dragged from the railway station to the main square by horses. The designer of the statue was János Fadrusz. He was a Hungarian sculptor, and he was born on 2nd September 1858. On the statue can found Mátyás király, he was king of Hungary, Croatia and also king of Bohemia. Mátyás király is the main figure of the monument. Also you can find Szapolyai István, Báthory István, Kinizsi Pál and Magyar Balázs on the statue. They are secondary figures. Szapolyai István was a rich nobleman, he was born in 1434. Báthory István and Kinizsi Pál won the Battle of the Bread Field. In 1440 Magyar Balázs fought in Hunyadi János’ army. If you’ve been around the main square, check out the statue.
Szakács Renáta VI. B
THE MATTHIAS CORVINUS STATUE RESTORATIONS
The Matthias Corvinus statue is an old monument, and as time goes by, the structure of the statue has been damaged. In 1907 the horse’s leg was full of cracks, so the people fixed it with lead. In 1941 Keledy Tibor, a major hired Kósa-Huba Ferenc to repair the monument. Ferenc tried to make it look like the original one which was made by Fadrusz János. He also wrote “MÁTYÁS KIRÁLY” in the front of the monument. In the Second World War after Cluj-Napoca, Romania suffered a bombing attack, the people discussed if the statue would stay together, and if they should move it to a safe place, but they left it there, and luckily it wasn’t damaged. Then time went by, and the monument was damaged again. So, in 2009 the Romanian and the Hungarian government reached an agreement to repair the statue. They started the restoration on 22nd July 2009, and the plan was to finish it on 22nd July 2010. The restoration was made with the leadership of Kolozsi Tibor, a Hungarian sculptor. When they repaired the horse under Matthias Corvinus, they put a time capsule filled with poems, drawings, newspapers and a film reel, too. He also changed the inscription “MÁTYÁS KIRÁLY” to “MATTHIAS REX”. In 2 April 2011, they finished the statue. And even in our days, the statue is fine in its place.
Lőrincz Áron VI. B
KING MATTHIAS CORVINUS
Probably everyone knows about him. He was born in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, on 23rd February 1443, and he died on 6 April 1490. He was unlucky, because he only lived 47 years. I hope it wasn’t a new piece of information. He was 15 years old when he became a king. In 1458, he was the king of the Croatia and Hungary, and he was also the king of the Czech. Everyone was afraid of him because he had the best soldiers. His army’s name is ‘Black Army’. He had a secret: he paid the soldiers, and this is the reason that he had a lot of good soldiers. He was the single king that dressed like a poor person and he was looking after problems. Everyone is saying that he was very fair and wise. In Matthias’ crest there is a raven holding a ring. To his honour, Janos Fadrusz built a statue here in Cluj-Napoca. It was made in 1901. There is a competition in our school. In it, we must advertise the monument. My classmates are in this competition, and they have to advertise this statue, they are working very hard they are doing Facebook blogs and YouTube videos, so if you are reading this, you should subscribe to their YouTube and Facebook page Fekete Sereg JZsUK. Bye
Barta Attila VI. B
THE MATTHIAS CORVINUS MONUMENT AND THE FEKETE SEREG JZSUK TEAM
The Matthias Corvinus Monument can be found in Cluj, Romania. It was made in the years 1896–1901. Behind the statue you can find the Szent-Mihály church. The builder of the statue was Fadrusz János (Rácz Alpár), this statue was his most famous building. In the middle of the statue there is Matthias (Sándor Emma), he has his warlords by his side, with the name “Fekete sereg hadvezérei”. The first one is Magyar Balázs (Szabó Dávid), it isn’t possible to know when he was born, but he died in 1490. The second one is Kinizsi Pál (Tamás Ágosta), he was born in 1432, and he died in 1494. The third one is Báthori István (Jedlicska Nóra), he was born in 1533 and he died in 1586, and the last one is Szapolyai István (Szakács Renáta) he died in 1499. Matthias Corvinus, also called Matthias I, was the king of Hungary and Croatia, his dad was Hunyadi János and his mom was Szilágyi Erzsébet. He was born on 23rd February 1443 and he died on 6th April 1490, at age 47. His first wife was Podjebrád Katalin and the second one was Aragóniai Beatrix. He had two children: Corvin János and Hunyadi N. I hope I have given you some important information. Simon Timea VI. B
’FEKETE SEREG JZSUK’ THE MYSTERY OF KING MATTHIAS' DEATH
Hello, everybody! I’m sure that you know a lot about King Mathias Corvinus. I hope that you read our posts on Facebook (Fekete Sereg JZSUK), but if you didn’t, you should, because there are a lot interesting things there. Anyways, Mathias was born on February 23rd 1443 in Cluj-Napoca, and he died on April 6th in Wien. Do you know how he died? I’ll tell the story of his death. He lived his life as a soldier, and this is why he got arthritis. Mathias went to Wien to knight someone, but then he celebrated Palm Sunday, too. He arrived to the church, but he was really hungry, because he didn’t eat anything the whole day. He spent 4 hours there. When he got to his house in Wien, he asked for fig, because it was his favourite fruit. When he took a bite from the fig, he become very angry, because it was rotten. He started screaming and then he got stroke. Doctors couldn’t do anything. Three days later he died. That’s what Antonio Bonfini said. Lots of historians say that Beatrix, Mathias’s wife poisoned the figs, because she wanted to be the queen of Hungary. Then she realized that it was impossible. In October 1490 she got married with King Ulászló ll. so she could still be a queen. But soon after the marriage, they divorced. Ulászló ll. used Beatrix to become a king. There’s another theory that Szapolyai István, who is next to Mathias on the statue in Cluj-Napoca, poisoned the figs because he wanted to kill the king to finish the strict rules that Mathias had made. He also wanted his son to be a king. Szapolyai was very rich. He took almost everything that János Corvinus, Mathias’s son had. This was why János Corvinus didn’t become king. Szabolyai reached his goal. His son become a king until he died. Maybe we will never know what happened, but probably Mathias had a natural death. We could find out how he died if we opened his grave in Székesfehérvár. The tales were also written about him because after his death the country found itself in a difficult situation. They still say “Mathias died, and the truth is gone with him”. You can read more about Mathias’s life on Facebook (Fekete Sereg JZSUK).
Szabó Dávid VI. B
MATTHIAS STATUE IN HUNGARY
Im pretty sure that you know about the statue in Romania, but did you know about the statue in hungary? The statue is standing in Budapest, on the Heroes’ Square. Made by Csaba Jászai, the statue was build in 1906, and yes, I know it’s really old and it’s very popular. It’s very well-known, it’s really pretty and a lot of people visit it. He was a good king and sage! There was a saying that was like: Matthias is dead, there is no more hope! Oh, and there’s another one: Matthias and Gergely, two bad people. It means: it’s going to be cold outside. Bye!
Zehra Timea, a guest writer from Hungary, cousin of Barta Attila (VI. B)!
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