Lajos Pákey, designer of the pedestal of the Matthias statue

Lajos Pákey was born on March 1, 1853 in Cluj and died on March 22, 1921. He was a very famous architect in Cluj. He designed many churches, tombs, and houses, and he even built the base of the Matthias statue. His wife was Antónia Frangh, and they had three children. He studied at our Unitarian High School, where he taught drawing as a subject already in the sixth grade. (By the way, he also designed the current building of the "János Zsigmond" Unitarian High School, as well as the most emblematic buildings of our town (picture).)

The construction of the base of the statue of Matthias was not easy, as the erection of the statue was delayed by a year and a half because of many disputes over the material of the base. Lajos Pákey thought that the part of the pedestal of the Matthias statue that is in contact with the ground should be made of Süttő stone, and the bastion should be made of the same material as the medieval walls of the city, i.e. Bácsi-torok stone. There were many opinions from all over that the Bácsi-torok stone could not support the weight of the statue, so the work was stopped and an investigation was carried out on the material from the quarries at that time. The strength of the stone would have been sufficient, but the quarry could not produce blocks of the size requested by János Fadrusz. Therefore, in the end, as Lajos Pákey thought, the pedestal was built of Süttő stone.

After many years, the condition of the statue had deteriorated. Due to the many rains over the years, water seeped into the base of the statue, causing the equestrian statue to tilt. In the summer of 2006 and April 2007, a couple of pieces detached from the plinth, and water penetrated through the gaps in the covering under the horse and through the opening stone joints, due to the dampness that caused the deterioration. That's why many newspapers and news stations said that if the restoration was delayed any longer, it could lead to even more deterioration. Tibor Kolozsi, the chief restorer assigned to the work, replaced the pieces detached from the pedestal with new stones.