For the fourth year, the Hungarian Prose Day is celebrated on February 18, the birthday of our most prolific writer, Mór Jókai, on the initiative of the Hungarian Writers' Association.
On this occasion, the article was published on the Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén news portal, from which we quote some details.
- According to some sources, Mór Jókai and his later wife, the actress Róza Laborfalvi, met for the first time on the stage of the theater in Miskolc on March 15, 1848, the evening of the outbreak of the Hungarian War of Independence. The woman lived with her ex-husband, who was eight years older, and with her illegitimate child, so Jókai's family opposed the relationship. A year later, however, the loving wife saved the life of her persecuted revolutionary husband - we learned from ethnographer Pál Lilla, the collection manager of the Jókai Mór Memorial Room and Landscape House in Tardona.
– With the help of one of his fellow actors, György Telepy, he arranged for Mór Jókai to hide in Tardona. Through György Telepy's wife at the time, actress Zsuzsanna Csányi, he was able to buy real estate and a forest in the settlement, but when Jókai arrived, the house was already occupied. For this reason, after his arrival on August 19, 1849, the writer was accommodated in the servant's house belonging to the home of Zsuzsanna's brother, the landlord Benjámin (Béni) Csányi.
– The writer spent most of his time drawing, painting and wandering in Bükk. He maintained an intensive relationship with the Tardona nobles: landowners Pál Szentimrey and Sámuel Bodolay, as well as cantor teacher Sámuel Nagy Vályi and his son, notary Sámuel Nagy Vályi. He made good friends with the Reformed priest, Endre Rácz, and they often played chess until late at night. In addition to the support of the local nobility, the villagers also helped to transport the letters of the refugees between Miskolc and Tardona. This is how Jókai was able to keep in touch with his wife all the time. Jókai was joined in November 1849 by his former schoolmate, János Muraközy, the captain of the Kecskemét army. They left Tardona together in December 1849. The reformed Reverend Endre Rácz issued him a letter of assistant pastor so that he could return home safely, the ethnographer reported.
– The settlement commemorates the writer in the Jókai Mór Memorial Room and Landscape House, and two plaques preserve his memory on the church wall and in the church. In the Jókai memorial room, there is a silver chalice received from Jólán Jókay (Jókai's niece), which was donated to the Reformed parish in 1905, in memory of the burial of Mór Jókai. In the area, there is also a Jókai memorial column on the Örvény-kön in Bükk.
Currently, the building and exhibition materials of the country house are being renovated. The new exhibition will be opened on March 14, 2022 from 1 p.m. After the opening, we will receive a limited number of visitors for the time being, based on prior registration, because the external works of the building will continue - shared the collection manager.
You can read the full article here
Photo: Tibor Bujdos
