“Arrival of the Hungarians ” by Arpad Feszty,

In art of the day we share one of the most amazing paintings of all times, “Arrival of the Hungarians ” A painting initiated by Arpad Feszty, son in law of famous Hungarian writer Mor Jokai, in the year 1891. It is painted in the backdrop of Verecke Pass of the Carpathians near Munkacs. This is the same place where Hungarians entered the Basin in the year 895. The project could stir lot of excitement from the beginning itself. Press started reporting its progress on a regular basis and they predicted the completion date as 20th Aug 1893. It made the over all project even more important as 20th Aug is the National day of Hungary. It was on this date that canonization of King Saint Stephen of Hungary took place in the year 1083. With so much public interest around the painting, the council of Budapest accepted to pay for the bills. Soon he had many helping hands assisting him in his work. In April, with the aid of Ignác Újváry, he painted the sky. Landscape details were painted by László Mednyánszky, Újváry and Spányi. The people were painted by Pál Vágó and Henrik Papp, and the camps by Celesztin Pállya. More painters joined the work, as it was too much for Feszty and his companions to finish without help. So much was the spirit behind the project that many writers, actors and musician friends were entertaining these painters while they worked hard to complete the ambitious dream. Finally, it got completed in the spring of 1894. Having travelled to London in the year 1899 for the Great Britain Exhibition, and back the painting saw many ups and downs enduring rains and snowfall. But finally it was again restored and has been on display since 1995 at National Heritage Park in Opusztaszer.