Imre Madách passed away on 5 October 1864, and he was buried on 7 October in the modest family tomb in Alsósztregova. 1 In 1909 Nógrád county decided to erect a memorial worthy to their great son. The county’s general assembly offered 1000 crowns for the purpose, and in addition they launched a national collection for a grave suitable to pay tribute to the great author. Collection sheets were also sent out with the call. 2 The collection, however, was unsuccessful, and then the world war and the borders redesigned by the peace treaties overshadowed the case for some time.

On 12 and 13 September 1930 the Czechoslovak president Tomás G. Masaryk visited the districts of Kékkő and Losonc. The Hungarian News of Prague gave a detailed report on his way. 3 On Friday, 12 September the president arrived at the triumphal gate set up at the border of Kékkő district, where he was also greeted by the representatives of the Hungarian minority, who presented him the works of the great writers who lived and worked in the two districts, including Imre Madách, Kálmán Mikszáth and Bálint Balassi. After the reception, the president went to Alsósztregova, where he laid a wreath in the grave chapel of the Madách family. The ribbon of the wreath was only written in Hungarian: “To the author of The tragedy of man, T. G. Masaryk”. The president in his response to the greetings of the locals anounced, that he respects Madách not because he was of Slovak origin, but because he sought the man in the man. Although the next day in Losonc, at the reception of the deputies of the local Hungarians he spoke about Madách as a Hungarian poet, the words of President Masaryk aroused great indignation in the Hungarian public opinion. The situation caused by poor drafting could not be improved by the fact that the old president – according to press reports – spoke in Hungarian in a Hungarian environment. The Pesti Hírlap rejected the claim in an editorial. 4 The historian Lajos Gogolák, an expert of Slovak literature and history, refuted Madách’s Slovak identity in a data-rich study in the November 1930 edition of Magyar Szemle. 5 However, we can claim with certainty that it was the presidential visit and its press coverage which turned the attention to the abandoned and neglected grave of the great author.

Zsolt Harsányi, who was just writing a biographical novel on Imre Madách, visited Alsósztregova in the summer of 1932, and published an article on the grave with the title Wreaths in the Madách crypt. 6 In the small Catholic cemetery he found a very simple, whitewashed and shingle-roofed building. The rusty lock of the door could be opened only with the help of locksmiths. Inside, a simple stone table-altar, in the vault beneath the floor are buried the members of the Madách family. The side wall of the vault had collapsed during an earlier funeral, and one could see the coffins, all in very poor conditions. Next to the great poet lay his mother, his son Aladár Madách, the wife of the latter, and the unidentifiable remains of the earlier deceased family members. Above the stone table, the dried relics of piety: the wreaths of President Masaryk and his daughter.

Meanwhile, two movements started to give a new resting place to Imre Madách. The Czechoslovakian Hungarian Sciences, Letters and Arts Society – founded in the autumn of 1931 by virtue of the one million crowns foundation of President Masaryk – decided in 1933 to erect a worthy monument to Imre Madách. After a site visit, architect Endre Szőnyi and art professor Ferenc Wimmer prepared a first vision plan. They planned to place in the castle garden the circular monument with the crypt inside. The Society wanted to build the monument in 1934, but they could not go further than the plans, the initiative died. 7

On the summer of 1932 the historian and financier Lajos Horánszky (1871–1944), ordinary member of the Kisfaludy Society and a great admirer of Imre Madách visited Alsósztregova, and saw with his own eyes the terrible conditions of the grave. The Madách descendants, Imre Madách’s granddaughter Flóra, her husband dr Pál Lázár and their daughter lived in rather poor conditions in the Madách castle of Alsósztregova. The estate was burdened with a huge mortgage: it was obvious that the family will not build a new grave with their own effort.

Horánszky thought that the Kisfaludy Society, of which Madách was an ornament, should take the initiative and complete the establishemt of the new tomb. He first won for his plan Albert Berzewiczy, who was at once president of the Kisfaludy Society and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Lajos Horánszky moved the Hungarian public opinion, and tried to also win governmental circles in the interest of the collection of the necessary amount. The work, however, required much caution, since the task was to be performed in a country which was not on friendly terms with Hungary.

Thus the official initiators of the new tomb for the outside world were the Madách descendants. However, the fragmentarily surviving documents make it clear that the organization of the work and the collection of the money was done by the influential Lajos Horánszky.

The work began in spring 1934. The Madách descendants indicated the place of the new tomb in the park of the castle, then Pál Lázár from the money received from Budapest built the new vault. The mortal remains of Imre Madách and his relatives were placed in the new vault on 2 July 1934, in the presence of the representatives of the Kisfaludy Society. Lajos Horánszky said his solemn speech, heated by emotions, in the name of the society. He pointed on the parallel between the fate of Imre Madách and of the Hungarian nation as well as between their sufferings. The great work of Madách proclaims the ancient Hungarian strength, his character and faitfulness to the nation the Hungarian virtues – he said. 8

János Giller (1886–1956), lawyer and Slovak regional deputy said a bold and straight speech on behalf of the Madách Company of Losonc: the Hungarians living in “Slovensko” proudly boast with the great poet and thinker as a fellow Hungarian. 9

The next task was to set up a memorial worthy of Madách’s significance. The commission to the memorial was given to Alajos Rigele (1879 –1940), living and working in Pozsony, who was recommended to the initiators of the memorial place by his colleague and friend, Ede Telcs. Although at home in several styles, Rigele was primarily a realist sculptor, and perhaps this is why he won the customers’ trust.

Alajos Rigele studied at the Art Academy in Vienna. In his last school year he won with the memorial grave of Péter Pázmány the Vilmos Fraknói Award as well as a two-year study trip to Rome. In 1911 he definitely settled in Pozsony. After the world war his main source of livelihood were the commissions of the citizens of Bratislava, about one-sixth of his works are tombstones. The 1930s brought change in his life, when various associations and institutions also discovered his work. Rigele worked with a wide variety of materials, stone, bronze, wood, but according to his monographer Zsolt Lehel his artistic qualities were best expressed in marble. 10 In his representations he regularly stressed opposites: a frequent motif in his works are the smooth figures rising from a rough background. He preferred to stress the contrast of agility and calmness – wrote about him Zsolt Lehel, who considers Rigele as the most important sculptor of Pozsony.

Rigele, who gladly accepted the commission, in early 1936 prepared two models and sent their photos to Ede Telcs. One of them represents an eagle taking off, while the other a towerin youngster. 11 The judges, Albert Berzeviczy, Géza Voinovich and Lajos Horánszky (we cannot call them a jury, as they never officially came together) accepted the second plan. Horánszky asked the artist to perform the spring survey and submitt he budget in the spring. The statue should be ready by autumn, so that it could stand in its place by All Saints’ Day. 12

In early summer 1936 the sculptor already sent a photo on the clay model to Ede Telcs, asking for his professional opinion. As he wrote, he planned agile drapes, which even symbolically stood in contrast to the relaxed arch of the body, in which he intended to shape much longing. 13

In May 1936 Alajos Rigele had a site visit in Alsósztregova. He found the grave in a neglected condition. Due to the careless foundation and masonry the ground water destroyed it so much that it had to be rebuilt.

In summer 1936 Rigele and his son, the architect László Rigele undertook the preparation of the Madách memorial and its installation in site, as well as the necessary rebuilding of the grave. The statue on the memorial and Madách’s portrait relief were made of bronze, and the pedestal of a time-resistant green sandstone. In the design of the memorial, the artist strived after a monumentality expressed with the simplest tools, as Madách’s personality was also without any artificial attitude. The statue, or in Regele’s beautiful words, the spirit of the Man longing for the sky, is standing on top of the grave. The two Rigeles undertook to control the entire working process. The total cost of the works were estimated at 53,697 crowns.

At the beginning of the work, on 14 August 1936, the mortal remains were put in a temporary burial place, and on 12 November they were buried again in the grave reinforced according to the plans of László Rigele. The reburial, which excluded the large public, was reported by János Giller to Lajos Horánszky. The priest of Alsósztregova consecrated the renovated tomb, and blessed the coffins in a funeral ceremony. After the ecclesiastical blessing they deposited the coffins in the vault, and then the tomb was walled. A protocol was made on the burial ceremony. 15

The tomb, whose inauguration was planned for All Saints Day, was finally set up on 19 December 1936 under the direction of Alajos Rigele, without any ceremony. The artist was satisfied with the end result, he found that the monument had a serious and noble effect in the great complex. The craftsmen did a good and solid job, thus the longevity of the monument  is assured. 16

Lajos Horánszky announced on 7 April 1937, at the regular monthly meeting of the Kisfaludy Society, that the Madách memorial of  Alsósztregova had been completed, and “is waiting for a solemn inauguration”. The ceremony, however, was canceled, certainlydue to the worsening political crisis.

As a result of the budget amended several times, the Madách tomb and monument in Alsósztregova costed 56 814 Czechoslovak crowns. The last details were taken over by the artist in mid-July 1938. 17

We have only limited data on the financing of the memorial. One reason is that the organizers wanted to preserve the appearance of private initiative. Lajos Horánszky, the coordinator of the works certainly reported about them to the Kisfaludy Society, but the documents of the society survived incomplete, as they were partially destroyed at the turn of 1944/45, during the siege of Budapest. The costs were probably entirely covered from the funds collected in Hungary. The largest sum was offered by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, which contributed to the erection of the Madách memorial with at least 3700 pengős from the interests of the Baron Podmaniczky Zsuzsanna Foundation. 18 The other sources are still unknown, or waiting for exploration.