Yes, we are the Scythians! Yes, Asians are us
With slanting and greedy eyes!
A. A. Block. Scythians
What else is travel good for, besides the fact that you see foreign things today? And the fact that you at least a little, but learn the history of those countries that you visit. And "a little" is while you, say, sit on the bus and listen to the guide, or they tell you something interesting during the excursion. And then you yourself can delve into the topic you like as much as you like, and the benefits of this are obvious. On the one hand, you saw everything with your own eyes, on the other, you begin to possess knowledge that you did not have before.
Column of the Millennium Monument.
For example, having visited the Polish city of Wroclaw, I visited the Racławice panorama there, learned about the battle that tells about it, and once again became convinced that you can win one battle and still lose the war. Or you can win the war and lose the world. Such examples are also known in history. True, the history of Poland somehow did not interest me much. Probably because I still have a trip to Polish castles ahead of me.
It was not so with Hungary. Because the desire to get to know her story more deeply arose immediately, as soon as I was on Heroes' Square in the center of Budapest. On it stands an impressive horseshoe-shaped architectural ensemble with a mass of beautiful bronze statues. Some of them seemed especially interesting to me. Well, you can only talk about them if you have an idea of who they represent and what, in fact, this square is dedicated to.
And it is dedicated to the millennium of Hungarian history, which the whole country celebrated in 1896. And in memory of this solemn anniversary, on Heroes' Square, it was decided to erect a majestic monument that would honor the memory of all prominent figures of the Hungarian people who played an important role in the history of the country and the formation of its statehood. First of all, this is the Millennium Monument in the center of the square, dedicated to the acquisition of their homeland, that is, the passage of the Magyars through the Carpathians. It looks like a column with a height of 36 meters, on top of which the figure of the Archangel Gabriel was installed on the globe, who in one hand holds the crown of St. King Stephen, and in the other - a double apostolic cross. Why exactly Gabriel? Yes, because, according to legend, it was he who appeared to Istvan in a dream and ordered to convert the Hungarians to the Christian faith.
Archangel Gabriel at the top of the Millennium Monument Column.
The square is framed by two semicircular colonnades, which are located behind the columns of the Archangel Gabriel, each 85 m long. Between the columns, from left to right, there are bronze statues depicting the heroes of Hungary. First of all, these are sculptures of kings from the Arpad dynasty: St. Stephen, St. Laszlo, Kalman I Scribe, Andras II and Bela IV, then there are the kings of the Anjou dynasty: Charles Robert and Louis I the Great, Janos Hunyadi, Matthias Corvin, and the Transylvanian princes Istvan Bochka Gabor Betlen, Imre Tekeli, Ferenc II Rákóczi and the renowned freedom fighter of the Hungarian people Lajos Kossuth. Both colonnades are crowned with allegorical figures of Labor and Prosperity, War and Peace, Wisdom and Glory. Work on the creation of this complex took 42 years and required a lot of work.
Right colonnade.
And it so happened that on the lands of present-day Hungary back in the VI century. BC. from the west came the Celts, and from the east the tribes of the Goths and Dacians. In the era of its highest prosperity, the Roman Empire took its lands into its own hands, as a result of which two Roman provinces arose here - Upper Pannonia and Lower Pannonia, and established its rule here for several centuries.
Map of the Roman Empire of the era of its maximum expansion.
However, in the middle of the 5th century. AD Germanic tribes, carried away by the Great Migration, drove the Romans out and settled in this region. In the IX century. here the Great Moravian state was formed - an early feudal state of the Slavic peoples, which existed in the years 822 - 907.
Great Moravia in its prime. Dark green is her territory. Light green - territories of periodic expansion.
There were no Hungarians, that is, Magyars, at that time there were not yet. They first appeared on the banks of the Danube in 862, and at that time they were allies of the Great Moravian prince Rostislav, who fought against King Louis II of the East Franks of Germany and the Bulgarian prince Boris I. lands of modern Bashkiria. And they came from there, first to the Black Sea region, and then to the grassy plains of Pannonia. A number of historians believe that the Magyars were a kind of community or union of the Turkic and Ugric nomadic peoples. In any case, their language is very close to the language of the modern Mordovians and other Finno-Ugric peoples. That is, it is a close relative of the Finnish language, Estonian, Karelian, Mari, Udmurt and Mordovian. In any case, at the meetings of the World Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples, many of our representatives of these peoples of the Hungarians understand and at least somehow communicate with them.
In 881, the Hungarians, already as allies of Prince Svyatopolk, who succeeded Rostislav, even reached Vienna, although, of course, they could not take the city. Well, the main part of the Magyar horde at that time was still roaming in the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region.
And then various political intrigues began, for which the Byzantines were so famous then. In an effort to fight with someone else's hands, in 894 they were able to convince the Hungarian princes to come out in an alliance with Byzantium against Bulgaria. The help of Byzantium was expressed in the fact that the Byzantines on their ships ferried the Magyar army across the Danube. After that, the Hungarians devastated Bulgaria right up to the capital, captured and sold many prisoners into slavery, including women and children. In retaliation, the Bulgarian Tsar Simeon I, in turn, entered into an alliance with the Pechenegs and together with them in 896 inflicted a crushing defeat on the Hungarians, burned their encampments and massacred women and children. As a result, the Hungarians migrated to the north, to the area of the Middle Danube lowland and occupied part of the territory that was part of the Great Moravian state. Here they finally created their own state, headed by the leader Arpad (889-907), who founded the Arpad dynasty. Until 904, he shared power with his co-ruler, Kursan (Kusan), and then began to rule alone. The last Great Moravian prince Moimir II began to fight the Hungarians, but died in this fight with them around 906. However, even before this happened, the Hungarians began to make predatory raids on Germany, Italy and other European countries.
There is a Hungarian legend about the acquisition of land, recorded in the text of the "Acts of the Hungarians", compiled, however, in the XII century, that is, two centuries after the above event. It deals with the "purchase" of land by the Hungarians, where they later had to settle.
On the pedestal of the column are placed the equestrian sculptures of the leaders of the Hungarians, impressive in size and expression, which led them to find a new homeland. At the head of the group is the khan (prince, ruler, or in Hungarian nagyfeidel) Arpad.
According to legend, when seven princes led by Khan Arpad were on the Danube, they sent an ambassador ahead to explore the new lands. He saw the abundant steppes covered with thick grass, after which he came to the Slavic prince Svyatopolk, who ruled these lands after the death of Attila, and informed him about the arrival of the Hungarians. Svyatopolk seemed to be delighted at first, because for some reason he decided that now he would have more tributary peasants. Meanwhile, the ambassador returned, informed Arpad that they had found the promised land, after which the Hungarians again sent the ambassador to Svyatopolk and with him a beautiful white horse under a gilded saddle and with a luxurious bridle. Prince Svyatopolk was delighted with the horse and decided that it was his new subjects who made him an offering. Well, the ambassador demanded only land, water and grass for the horse. Svyatopolk laughed in his face and … allowed the Hungarians to take all this as much as they could. Then the Hungarians sent a new embassy to the naive prince - now with a demand to leave the land they had bought from him. Then Svyatopolk realized how reckless it was on his part to accept a white horse as a gift, and he gathered an army and went to fight with the aliens. However, the Magyars defeated him, and he threw himself out of grief into the waves of the Danube and drowned. And the raids of the Hungarians to Europe began, coinciding with the raids of the Vikings from the north and the Arabs from the south!
Here he is, Arpad! Everyone is good and looks impressive. But why did the author of this sculpture give him a sixteenth-century sixfold? It can be attributed to an allegory, but the rest of the figures are made very, very historically.
The first such successful raid was the campaign of the Hungarians in Italy in 899, when they defeated the Italian king Berengarius I at the Battle of the Brent River. Then in 900 their cavalry invaded Bavaria, in 901 they attacked Italy and Carinthia; and in 904 - again Italy. In 907-911 they devastated Saxony, Bavaria, Thuringia and Swabia, and in 920-926 they once again invaded Italy. Moreover, in 922 they reached Apulia, on March 24, 924 they burned the city of Pavia - the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and then, already in 926, they reached Rome itself.
In 924 - 927 the Hungarian cavalry devastated Burgundy and Provence, then Bavaria and Italy; and in 933 the Magyars reached Constantinople and camped under its walls. In 935, they again found themselves in Burgundy, Aquitaine and Italy, where they periodically raided until 947! In 941 and 944, through the lands of southern France, the Magyars even invaded Spain, where in 944 they even met the Arabs. It is interesting that for some reason unknown to us, and maybe from a simple calculation to rob those who were richer, the Magyars practically did not attack such Slavic countries as the Czech Republic, Poland, or Kievan Rus. Even Croatia and that successfully were able to repel the invasion of the Hungarians, and then even became their ally. But the Western European rulers of that time could not repel the raids of the Hungarians. When in 907-947. at the head of the union of the Magyar tribes was the son of Arpad, Prince Zoltan, the Hungarians became a real horror of Western Europe. True, occasionally they were defeated. For example, in 933 they were defeated by the German king Henry I the Bird-catcher, and in 941 they were defeated near Rome, the European feudal kingdoms could not actually resist the Magyars.
Only after the defeat in the Battle of the Lech River in 955, the intensity of the Hungarian campaigns in the west fell sharply and soon ceased completely. But they continued their forays into the Balkans. In 959 they again besieged Constantinople, and in 965 the Bulgarian Tsar Peter made an alliance with them, allowing them to freely pass through the territory of Bulgaria to the Byzantine possessions. Prince Takshon actively supported the Russian prince Svyatoslav, who was at that time at war with Byzantium, although the joint campaign of the Rus, Magyars and Bulgarians in 971 ended in failure.
As a result, it turned out that the Hungarians everywhere made themselves a lot of enemies and they had only to wait until they all unite and act with them in the same way as the Medes and Babylonians did with Assyria in their time. In addition, they still professed polytheism, that is, they were pagans surrounded by Christian countries. Therefore, Prince Geza (972-997) very far-sightedly decided to accept Christianity, and thereby knock out the main trump card from the hands of his opponents - their paganism! Moreover, Geza received baptism in 974 directly from the Pope, without any intermediaries, although he himself continued to worship pagan gods. Most importantly, he banned the Hungarians from predatory raids on their neighbors, pacified the willfulness of the feudal lords and created, in addition to his own light cavalry, the Magyars heavily armed cavalry from mercenaries - the Vikings, Croats, and Bulgarians, whom he put in command of the German knights-Swabians.
Finally, in 1000, Prince Vayk himself converted to Catholicism, taking the name Istvan (Stephen) and the title of king. It was he, Istvan I (1000-1038), who had already finally turned the union of Magyar tribes into a typical medieval European kingdom. It is known that he zealously promoted Catholicism, introduced a new code of laws, abolished slavery in his kingdom and won the war with Poland for the possession of Slovakia. Then, as in all other kingdoms, a struggle for power began in Hungary, when opponents were overthrown, blinded, and applicants for the throne, on occasion, tried to strengthen their position with an advantageous marriage.
No, whatever you say, but the sculptures of the ancient Magyar leaders are simply masterful! A sculptural group of the leaders, companions of Arpad - right side view.
For example, the king of Hungary Endre I (1046 - 1060) was married to the daughter of the Russian prince Yaroslav the Wise - Anastasia. One brother went to his brother to seize the throne invited foreign troops - some Germans, some Poles and Czechs, that is, in the Kingdom of Hungary everything was exactly the same as everyone else!
Some kings, in particular Laszlo I, nicknamed the Saint (1077-1095), were distinguished by their piety. It got to the point that the Pope wanted to make him the head of the First Crusade, and would have put him if he hadn't died.
King Kalman (1095-1116), nicknamed the Scribe for his passion for theological literature, patronized the arts and sciences, issued two sets of laws, and became famous for officially banning Wedic processes by issuing the decree “De strigis vero quae non sunt, nulla amplius quaestio fiat "-" There should be no judicial investigations about witches who do not really exist. " When the crusaders, advancing through its lands, began to plunder the local population, Kalman without mercy exterminated a whole detachment of "soldiers of the Cross", thereby protecting Hungary from robbery and violence. True, in 1099 he decided to intervene in civil strife already in Kievan Rus, and supported the Grand Duke Svyatopolk against the Galician princes and the Rostislavich family. However, in the end it was defeated by the Galicians and Polovtsians. But in 1102, he was able to annex Croatia to the Kingdom of Hungary, and then recaptured Dalmatia from the Venetians. For all his bookish piety, he ruled tough. He ordered, for example, to blind his brother with Belaya's nephew, since they claimed his throne. Although, dying, in the end he handed the throne to him. Bela II the Blind (1131-1141), despite the fact that he was blind, pursued an active foreign policy, so that the kingdom gradually grew under him.
Pay attention here to the figure of the horse in the center of the photo and the pointed deer antlers attached to its harness. I can't say if this is so historically true, but it looks great.
Let's say more: the Hungarian kings constantly got involved in some kind of external strife, sometimes in Russia, then in Byzantium, then they sent their soldiers to help Frederick I Barbarossa. However, in general, this did not bring them good luck. For example, although in 1188 they conquered the Galician principality, using it as a pretext for interfering in the struggle for power between the heirs of Prince Yaroslav Osmomysl, their atrocities caused an uprising of the Galicians, so they did not manage to gain a foothold here. However, despite many foreign policy failures, the power of the Hungarian kings was great enough for Hungary to remain one of the strongest feudal states of medieval Europe all this time.
Was in Hungary and his king "Richard the Lionheart", Endre II, nicknamed the Crusader (1205-1235), who with a generous hand distributed the royal lands to his adherents and conducted an extremely adventurous foreign policy. So, he spent many years in campaigns against Galich, and in the meantime, Hungary was ruled by his wife, Queen Gertrude of Meranskaya, who, like her husband, distributed land to her favorites, and they enjoyed her sympathy and committed a variety of crimes with complete impunity … All this led to the fact that a conspiracy arose against the queen. And although the conspirators brutally killed not someone, but the queen herself (1213), Endre punished only the head of the conspirators, and forgave everyone else! Then he went to Palestine, becoming the head of the Fifth Crusade (1217–1221), which was also unsuccessful. It was necessary to return to Hungary, and then he did not find anything better than to give the disputed towns of Branichev and Belgrade to the Bulgarians, if only they would allow the Hungarian army to pass home through Bulgaria. However, while the king was heroic across the sea, anarchy ensued in the country, and the treasury was completely plundered. As a result, in 1222, Endre was simply forced to sign the so-called "Golden Bull" - an almost complete analogue of the Magna Carta, published seven years earlier in England. The "Golden Bull" guaranteed the rights of the upper classes and the clergy and allowed the feudal lords in a completely official way to oppose the king in cases where they believed that their rights were infringed!
A sculptural group of the leaders, companions of Arpad - left view.
In order to at least somehow strengthen his power, the crusader king Endre II tried to rely on the knights of the Teutonic Order, and provided a place for settlement in the lands of Transylvania. But their relationship did not work out and after a few years he expelled them from his kingdom, after which in 1226 they moved to live in the Baltic States. As a result, his eldest son, Bela IV (1235-1270), who succeeded him, received control over a weakened country, headstrong magnates, and all this just before the Mongol invasion …
Right in front of the column standing in the middle of the square, there is a stone memorial plate - a monument to Hungarian soldiers, participants in both world wars. During national holidays, a guard of honor stands near it and flowers are laid. At first, there was a monument to Hungarian soldiers who died during the First World War, opened on May 26, 1929 in the presence of the then ruler of Hungary, Miklos Horthy. The monument was a stone block weighing 47 tons with the inscription "1914-1918", and drowned below the level of the square itself. The text on its back read: “Beyond Millennial Borders”. Then, in the early 1950s, it was dismantled, since, they say, the soldiers of the First World War fought for the interests of the exploiters and therefore cannot be counted among the heroes. Therefore, in 1956, a new memorial stone was erected, decorated with a laurel branch and with the inscription engraved on it: "In memory of the heroes who sacrificed their lives for our freedom and national independence." In 2001, it was reconstructed again: the laurel branch was removed from it, and the inscription itself became shorter: "In memory of our heroes."
