Paper short abstract:

Called the Hungarian Golgotha, Arad is where 13 generals of the Hungarian liberation war against the Habsburgs in 1848/1949 were executed. The paper analyses the sacralising process, sacred memorial place(s) and symbolic expressions of hurt national (and Christian) sentiments in the 20th century.

Paper long abstract:

The Hungarian (popular) interpretation of national history finds some parallels between Hungarian history and the events of the Bible, the suffering of Jesus, Virgin Mary and the chosen people.

The fortification of Arad was the prison and place of execution of 13 generals of the Hungarian liberation war against the Habsburgs in 1848/1949. After the Hungarian-Austrian Compromise (1867) a monument was erected at the scaffold (1881) then a Liberty-statue was built on the main square of the city (1892). Arad was and is called the Hungarian Golgotha. The Liberty statue uses religious and national symbols for expressing patriotic and religious sentiments.

Since the Trianon Peace Dictate (1920), the city is part of Romania. The memorial was pulled down by the Romanian authorities in 1925. A memorial to the Romanian Soldier was built on the place of the Liberty-statue. After negotiations between Hungary and Romania, the figures of the Liberty statue were restored and rebuilt on the Square of Reconciliation together with a Romanian triumphal arch.

The figures of the Liberty statue express different human, patriotic, and religious values. The figure of Hungaria coincides with the figure of the Virgin Mary.

Together with the so called Hungarian Calvarias in different settlements of Hungary, Arad is one of the most susceptible places of Hungarian national, civil religion, expressing not only the thirst for liberty and justice in general, but the liberty of the Hungarian minority living in Romania, belonging together with the Hungarian nation, Christian values, and mercifulness of Christ.