The spectacle of the royal giant puppets awaits the audience tuning in to the royal days of Székesfehérvár on August 6, at 5 p.m. at the Vörösmarty Theater in Székesfehérvár. Since 2013, authentic and detailed puppets animating the figures of the Árpád House have been enhancing the dignity and spectacle of Székesfehérvár's celebrations.

The first group of puppets was prepared for the first coronation festival games almost ten years ago. The giant puppets of Prince Géza and his wife Sarolt, King Saint István, Queen Gizella, Prince Saint Imre and Bishop Asztrik were made based on the designs of the Kossuth Prize-winning graphic artist and painter Győző Somogyi and the Géza Prize-winning puppet designer Erik Blattner Grosschmid. After that, the historical family expanded every year. King Saint László, King Géza I, King Solomon, and Saint László's wife, Adelhaid, and their daughter, Piroska, were completed. In the following year, Kálmán Könyves and his younger brother, Prince Álmos, were added to the Árpád family of puppets. In 2015, for the first time, these puppets were given a role in the ceremonial play on stage. In the following years, he joined II. István and II. (Blind) King Béla, III. A puppet of King Béla and his famously beautiful wife, Anna of Antioch. II. András, the king who issued the Golden Bull, and his daughter, Szent Erzsébet, were completed in 2018, the following year IV. Béla and his canonized daughter, Margit, joined. The puppet family has two new members this year, IV. László and III. András kings were added, who came to life in Kecskemét under the leadership of Gyula Majoros Blattner, Géza Prize-winning master puppet maker and sculptor. With this, the family of giant puppets has grown to 23 members. The renovation of the first puppets took place in the same place, since in addition to strengthening the structure, the heads and crowns also need to be restored from time to time.

The almost five meter tall puppets required careful planning and execution. Graphic artist Győző Somogyi is an expert on church history and an active guardian of the cavalry hussar tradition. For four decades, he has been researching and reviving Hungarian historical military uniforms and flags. In shaping the giant puppets of the Árpád family, he was guided by the restoration of the dignity of the Christian idea of ​​kingship. He used the descriptions of chronicles, the tradition conveyed by legends and songs, and depictions of the same age as the sources of the design.

For example, the representation of St. Stephen and Gizella on the coronation mantle, the head of the King of Kalocsa, the herma of St. László, the Képes chronicle, and the enamel images of the Holy Crown. Byzantine and German-Roman emperors, Caucasian and Balkan, Western European miniatures, statues and coins served as indirect sources. The ruling fashion of the Christian cultural circle was uniform, and this provided an authentic model for the kings and princes of the Árpád House. Since it is a family and relatives, the artist used the III. Anthropological reconstruction made after Béla's skull.

Each puppet is the result of three to four months of teamwork. After the structure and body are completed, they are dressed, and the tailoring and sewing of the clothes also require many days. Each outfit requires about thirty meters of fabric. By way of comparison: for a woman's skirt, the length of the skirt plus twenty centimeters of material is usually calculated, i.e. a maxi skirt can be made of 1.20 meters of fabric.

During the Saturday parade, Prince Géza, Princess Sarolt, Bishop Asztrik and the puppet of King Szent István walk down Fő utca, they are accompanied by the Order of the Hungarian Royal Swordsmen, who also hold a demonstration at the Országalma and the King Mátyás monument. The background music is provided by Sonivius Vappae with medieval bagpipes and drums, and the giant puppets are presented to the audience by Miklós Bence Szabó.

At the end of the program, the audience can hear the GabiKvArt band composed by the artists of the Vörösmarty Theater in the Zichy-liget in the Music Hall. Members of the band: Gabriella Varga (vocals), Gábor Cserta (bass guitar), Anikó Réti (piano), Kamill Kricsár (guitar), Zsolt Kovács (drums). The band was formed during the pandemic and has since gone on to perform several successful concerts. Blues, funky, soul or rock, in Hungarian or English, one thing is certain: the members of GabiKvArt only play what they love: the audience can enjoy world hits by great artists and masterpieces by Hungarian songwriters on summer evenings.

Source: Hungarian Nation

Featured image: Source: Tourinform Székesfehérvár