Prohászka László: Polish Monuments - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2001)
The inscription engraved on the front of the pedestal is thus a combination of two famous sayings attributed to the general. The lower part of the frontal plane of the base is decorated by a relief showing Hungarian soldiers charging. In front of it, in a frame carved from limestone, a brick was placed from the house in Tarnow. This relic was stolen a few years ago but it was replaced as a result of Polish efforts in 1999. Engraved on both sides of the pedestal the stations of Bern’s military expeditions are listed: on the right are Dés / Zsibó / Csúcsa / Kolozsvár / Beszter- cze / Bethlen / Naszád / Tihucza / Marosvásárhely / Gálfalva /Nagyszeben /Szelindek / Vízakna /Szászsebes / Szászváros / Piski; on the left Alvincz / Medgyes / Jád / Vöröstorony / Brassó / Olaszfalu / Sepsiszentgyörgy / Segesvár/ Hátszeg /Karánsebes / Lugos / Temesvár / Fehértemplom / Petrilona / Szászka / Orsóvá. The last place name, Orsóvá, lay on the Hungarian border. From here Bern left for Turkey. On the back of the pedestal there are three verses from Petőfi’s poem The Guns Roared for Four Days.... Petőfi wrote this poem after the bloody retreat following the lost battle at Vízakna on 4 February 1849 , at which time he was a captain in Bern’s staff of field officers. The inscription below that of the quotation reads: Let this statue be / a symbol of the liberation of the Magyars / before the world. That sentiment inscribed in the 1930s became reality in 1956, when students marching in protest on 23 October carried Polish as well as Hungarian flags. Cinema newsreels recorded the mass demonstration which took place around the statue. These were perhaps the last shots of peaceful and unarmed men recorded by the camera. The first bullets would soon be fired in front of the radio building, and from then on it was arms against arms. Later the Bern statue became a symbol for both those in power and the opposition. The 1980s saw a number of demonstrations on this spot on 15 March. Masterfully crafted as János Istók’s sculpture is, the true atmosphere of the statue can only be under21
