Memorial plaque unveiled for "the greatest Palóc" in Selmecbánya

Kálmán Mikszáth studied and graduated from high school in Selmecbánya, a picturesque mining town in historic Hungary. On the wall of the former Lutheran lyceum, a memorial plaque was placed on the 114th anniversary of the writer's passing, at the initiative of the Liszt Institute Bratislava and the Museum of Hungarian Culture in Slovakia.

On the way from Pest to Krakow, we leave the main road at Hontnémet to reach Selmecbánya, the former stronghold of Hungarian mining education and silver mining in the Highlands, after a nearly twenty-five kilometre drive along the meandering road. Kálmán Mikszáth studied here in the Lutheran lyceum of the mining town nestling in the Selmec hills from 1863, and after graduating from high school he moved to Pest to study law.

A few decades earlier, Sándor Petőfi, one of our best-known poets, and the Slovak poet and literary critic Andrej Sládkovič, were students at the lyceum. Their names are commemorated on the façade of the former lyceum.

On the initiative of Pál Venyercsan, director of the Liszt Institute Bratislava and Gabriella Jarábik, director of the Museum of Hungarian Culture in Slovakia, a memorial plaque was placed at the main entrance of the Lyceum, jointly funded by Hungary and Slovakia to commemorate the 114th anniversary of the passing of Kálmán Mikszáth.

The ceremonial unveiling of the memorial plaque took place on 30 May 2024, with speeches and a toast by Nadežda Babiaková, mayor of Selmecbánya, Dr. Csaba Balogh, ambassador of Hungary to Bratislava, and Mihály Praznovszky, literary historian and president of the Mikszáth Society. István Híves, flute artist and director of the Ipolybalog Art Primary School, contributed with music. The event was also attended by representatives of the Hungarian community in Slovakia and local public life, as well as the Ministry of Culture and Innovation, the Consulate General of Hungary in Košice and the owner of the building.

After the unveiling, the Lutheran pastor Olivér Nagy from Alsószel blessed the memorial plaque and the participants paid tribute to the writer with wreaths.

Mikszáth wrote about the town in his novel The Golden Demoiselle, which is one from his collection entitled Tót atyafiak:

"Gentlemen, if in hell the devils ever had the idea of building a city, it would certainly be like Selmecbánya.

May the worthy magistrate there forgive this insult, it is meant to be neither an insult nor a mockery, especially to the citizens, who surely cannot help it that their ancestors built in such a foolish place. Gentle reader, who has not yet been in this crooked country, imagine to yourself three thousand mountain peaks, as many valley cathedrals, a dozen cliffs, thickly built up with houses of all shapes, many of which have three storeys in the front, while the backs are modestly set back against the mountain.

When you walk through this city, paved with nature itself, your heart is filled to overflowing with humanistic emotions, and you sigh with emotion, "Are there people living even here?"