Porta Heroum

The Szeged Heroes' Gate (Latin: Porta Heroum) is a neoclassical artistic work created in 1936, 1937 in memory of the fallen heroes of the First World War, the 12,000 Szeged soldiers.

Significance

It played an important role in Szeged at the former Gizella Square, today Aradi Martyrs' Square. Its history developed so that it became the city's historic memorial site. National celebrations, memorable historical anniversaries, city commemorations, processions, and wreath-laying ceremonies take place here. The square itself has been the location of the city's most important monuments for more than two hundred years, and it received its name from the heroes executed in Arad in 1849. The Rozália Chapel stood here, built in the 18th century in memory of the victims of the plague, and later in 1896 the city erected a memorial column here in honor of the Battle of Sőreg of the 1848-49 War of Independence. After the First World War another memorial column was erected on the square to commemorate the fallen of the 46th Infantry Regiment of Szeged. A copy of the Dragon‑Slayer Saint George statue of the Cluj brothers is displayed here, and Melocco Miklós's 1997‑unveiled 1956 memorial was placed here. This particular chain of historic memorial sites made the designation of the Heroes' Gate location even more justified.

History of the monument

After the First World War the idea of the monument originated from Minister of Culture Kuno Klebelsberg, the creator of the Cathedral Square ensemble: “I do not want to build a palace gate, but a city gate that will close the unrest of Gizella (now Aradi Martyrs' Square) … With little money, with scarce means, beautiful things must now be created. This gate must be made so that it becomes a symbol of the city, both for the locals from within and for strangers arriving by train from outside…”

The idea for the construction of the gate was therefore originally the conception of Kunó Klebelsberg, who gave the commission to the renowned architect Móric Pogány for the design of the teachers' dormitory building complex already in 1930. According to the task formulation, the building complex was to have one wing close the opening of Boldogasszony Avenue onto Gizella Square, so that its traffic could be carried out without disturbance under the three arches. The plan was completed quickly, but construction could only begin in 1935. At the start of the building work, Dr. József Pálfy, then mayor of Szeged, suggested that this special building also serve as a monument to the heroic dead of the city of Szeged in the form of the Heroes' Gate. Móric Pogány readily redesigned the building to accommodate this new function, and when the then Minister of Culture, Bálint Hóman, approved the costs of the changes, the city’s art jury, after lengthy consultations, entrusted painter Vilmos Aba-Novák with the creation of the frescoes, while sculptor Éva Lőte was tasked with designing and carving the statues. The Heroes' Gate was completed in the autumn of 1936, but its ceremonial inauguration took place on May 30, 1937, on Heroes' Memorial Day, among others in the presence of Governor Miklós Horthy.

When the inauguration took place, two decades after the end of the war, “by then the most important consideration was no longer primarily remembrance of mourning and heroic sacrifices, but – in line with the elevation of irredentism to a state‑political level – rather the expression of a claim of justice over the war’s defeat, a call to arms”.

Description of the monument

The monument, that is, the gate structure, arches over the beginning of Boldogasszony Avenue between the previously built DMKE palace at numbers 2–4 (headquarters of the South Hungarian Hungarian Cultural Association) and the three‑storey teachers' dormitory block at number 1 – built together with the monument – on the avenue. The three‑arch gate structure is also three storeys high; on the main façade facing the square, in the centre, there is a solid‑wall balcony adorned with the Hungarian crowned coat of arms, serving also for ceremonial speeches, below which the inscription on the frieze reads “Porta Heroum 1914–1918” (the dates were not originally on the façade, probably added when the coat of arms and crown were removed; the crown is still missing). In line with the balcony, a set of three French windows with semicircular arches can be seen, decorated with a breast‑plate motif made of forged‑iron swords. The central arch is bordered by the inscription “Hősi Halált Halt Hű Fiaink Emlékét Őrzi Az Élet”. On the right and left sides of the gate, monumental stone statues of living and dead soldiers stand on pillars, commemorating the victims of the First World War (sculptor Éva Lőte, 1937). On the opposite side of the main façade, on the façade facing the avenue, there is also a solid‑wall balcony in the centre (wider, with two doors, an empty coat‑of‑arms niche, as was long visible on the main façade, but here the coat of arms was not restored), the frieze again bears the inscription Porta Heroum (without dates). The balcony is framed by a French window on each side. The central arch here is bordered by the inscription “Haladás Útja Dicső Múltból Diadalmas Jövőbe Vezet” (in modern orthography). On the right and left sides of the gate, on pillars similar to but narrower than those supporting the statues, large flag‑pole rods extend up to the third storey. On both sides, at the bottom of the balconies, a relief of swords crossed on a wreath can be seen.

The gate structure is flat‑topped, rising slightly above the ridge of the adjacent buildings' pitched roofs. In the middle of the roof, on a drum‑like platform, a flagpole stands, set slightly back from the plane of the façade. Within the larger arches, in the smaller arches, there were once large antique‑style bronze perpetual lamps. The façade of the DMKE palace was not considered suitable for the monument’s style, so its Art Nouveau decorations were removed during construction, its light‑coloured sgraffito was painted over, and then the whole building was glazed grey, which is also the monument’s base colour.

The construction work is attributed to the company Erdélyi András és Fiai and to the Szeged architect Ottovay István.