The Summer Exhibition at the Orly Museum in Honor of the Petőfi 200 Memorial Year. Free of charge.

Short content of the exhibition:

"At the time of Petőfi's birth, the Hungarian Kingdom was part of the dominant power in Central Europe, the Habsburg Empire, and its national independence was heavily compromised. However, it was precisely during this time, in the first half of the 19th century, that a new intellectual spirit emerged throughout Europe influenced by the ideals of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. Economic and social reforms began: it was the era of bourgeois transformation and national awakening, whose aspirations were summed up by contemporaries with the motto of homeland and progress.In this environment, a young rebellious poet appeared in Hungary, who with his direct voice, new themes, and evocative power, disrupted conventions, mediocrity, and salon poetry. In his short life of barely 26 years, he wrote nearly 1000 poems. As a Hungarian-language poet with a distinct identity, he had an unprecedented impact on world literature: his works were actively translated into both major and minor European languages; many translators learned Hungarian because of him. His poetry contributed to the awakening of self-consciousness among smaller European nations striving for their freedom. Victor Hugo referred to him, and later Nietzsche set several of his poems to music. He played a significant role in shaping the image of Hungarians living abroad to this day. He became a central figure in the Hungarian events of the European revolutionary wave: as a poet in the 1848 revolution, raising the banner of civil liberties and national self-determination, and as a military officer serving his country in the fight to preserve the achievements of the revolution.

Revolutionary, national hero, myth: with his poetry, dynamic personality, and heroic death, Sándor Petőfi is the true embodiment of Romanticism."

Organizer of the exhibition: Éva Szabó