The Statue of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Komárno

The Slovak national culture-heritage organization Matica slovenská decided in 1990 to erect a statue in Komárno to the two Slavonic missionaries, SS. Cyril and Methodius. They justified their request addressed to the town´s assembly on the grounds that the two missionaries crossed the Danube in 863 at this particular place and stepped on the territory of the Great Moravian Empire, which allegation, however, has not been historically proven. The assembly of the town with a Hungarian majority population rejected the request for placing the statue on a public square with the argument that the two saints are not interconnected with the town in any way. They offered an unused church for the statue´s placement instead. Matica slovenská did not accept the proposal, and they tried for several years to achieve that the almost 4 metres high statue—which has been built by that time—is placed in a public square. The wrangling over the statue´s emplacement had gradually taken on proportions and it had spread to countrywide levels, and was joined by not only locals but also top representatives of Slovak politics and of the Catholic Church. The sculptures were placed in 2003—without the town´s permission—above the entrance of the Komárno branch´s building of Matica slovenská, then in 2010, upon the intervention of the then prime minister Robert Fico, they placed it in a roundabout on a state-owned public road. This study presents the process and the background of this “statue war” lasting almost 20 years.