The Slovak national culture-heritage organization Matica slovensk\u00e1 decided in 1990 to erect a statue in Kom\u00e1rno to the two Slavonic missionaries, SS. Cyril and Methodius. They justified their request addressed to the town\u00b4s 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\u00b4s placement instead. Matica slovensk\u00e1 did not accept the proposal, and they tried for several years to achieve that the almost 4 metres high statue\u2014which has been built by that time\u2014is placed in a public square. The wrangling over the statue\u00b4s 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\u2014without the town\u00b4s permission\u2014above the entrance of the Kom\u00e1rno branch\u00b4s building of Matica slovensk\u00e1, 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 \u201cstatue war\u201d lasting almost 20 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Slovak national culture-heritage organization Matica slovensk\u00e1 decided in 1990 to erect a statue in Kom\u00e1rno to the two Slavonic missionaries, SS. Cyril and Methodius. They justified their request addressed to the town\u00b4s assembly on the grounds that the two missionaries crossed the Danube in 863 at this particular place and stepped on the territory […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":795,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555,568,540],"tags":[],"post_year":[],"coauthors":[249],"class_list":["post-2987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum-social-science-review","category-studies","category-szemle"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n