The disappearance of the great Hungarian poet, Petofi Sandor, during the battle of Sighisoara, of July 31, 1849, between the Tsarist army and that of the Hungarian revolutionaries led by Polish general Bem Jozsef, who foreshadowed the defeat of the 1848-1849 Revolution, is shrouded in mystery and for this reason it has given rise to many legends.

The battle took place near Sighisoara, in the area of the Albesti rural town, before entering the Vanatori locality, and, although the poet was urged by General Bem Jozsef to stay in Targu Mures and not go to the area of the armed confrontation, he followed his destiny and joined the combatants, in civilian clothes and without any weapons.

And not even after 173 years the mystery of the poet's disappearance has been elucidated, with many legends appearing in the meantime about what happened to Petofi Sandor, who was only 26 years old, but who left behind a remarkable poetic work, especially love poems, but also about the Revolution.

A model that covers the entire battlefield, from Sighisoara to Albesti and further, including the way the troops were arranged and the route followed by the poet until his disappearance, is the central piece at the Petofi Museum in Albesti, built in the place where nearly 400 Hungarian revolutionaries who died in battle were buried.

"We are in the place where between 300 and 400 Hungarian soldiers were killed in the battle of July 31, 1849. In their memory and that of poet Petofi Sandor, this monument was erected, this obelisk about 9 meters high. We also have a life-size statue of the poet brought from the town of Kiskunfelegyhaza in 1999, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the battle. The obelisk was erected 125 years ago, on July 31, 1897, 48 years after the battle, while the museum was opened one year later, in 1898, thanks to the last Countess of Albesti from Haller Castle, Luise Haller. The obelisk reads that it was erected in honour of the heroes who fell in the battle of Sighisoara and in memory of Petofi Sandor. Basically, there is only one name written on this obelisk, with the rest being unknown heroes," said Szabo Iosif, custodian of the Petofi Museum and Park in Albesti.

The custodian of the museum says that the testimonies show that Petofi Sandor was last seen alive halfway between Albesti and Vanatori, where there is another monument that is supposed to be the poet's supposed eternal place.

"At the end of the battle won by the tsarist army, in the northern side of the village, there was an Austrian officer who wrote that he saw a body that was not in military clothes, with a large wound around the heart and some blood-soaked papers. As he described it, a number of Hungarian officers detained in Sighisoara reportedly recognized him. Petofi Sandor inspired the largest number of legends and stories in the history of Hungarian literature. The fact that he disappeared and has never been found - although he was not really looked for, with only some small archeological digs having been carried out, with zero chances, in 1956 - has inspired many legends, which don't make sense. There is also a theory that he was taken prisoner by the Russians, although the Russians were only an interventionist army at the time, called in support of the Austrians, which means that they only took prisoners to hand them over to the Austrians. So the theory that he was taken prisoner by the Russians and lived there for a couple more years can't be true," Szabo said.

Another legend says that Petofi Sandor fled with a Russian woman, which is contradicted by historians, who claim that the members of the Tsarist army did not come to the battle of Sighisoara with their families, and there was no population of Russian origin in the area.

Among the legends there is the one from Cristuru Secuiesc, where the Hungarian soldiers were housed. There is a stone table on which he would have written his last poem, under a pear tree that still exists today.

What is well known is that Petofi Sandor wrote the most beautiful love poems in Coltau, when he spent his honeymoon with his wife, and from 1846 to 1849 his poetic creation had revolutionary inclinations.

The curator of the museum believes that being one of the initiators of the 1848 Revolution in Budapest, anything could have happened to Petofi Sandor.

"At Pest this revolution ended without bloodshed, but unfortunately the rest followed here. The Austrians did not agree with the revolutionary ideals. It was not this battle that sealed the fate of the Revolution, but the one around Sibiu a week later. More than 1,000 people were killed, 250 Tsar troops died or went missing in the country. Here, in the museum we have a model with the whole battlefield between Albesti and Sighisoara, but especially on today's territory of Albesti commune. The Tsarist army had been in Sighisoara for a few days, and the Hungarian army, led by the Polish general Bem Jozsef, had set out from Targu Mures. They did not come directly to Sighisoara, but from Cristuru Secuiesc, they came from the opposite direction. The number of soldiers was then known, and this led to losing the battle by the Hungarian army, as it was outnumbered, that is 3,100 compared to the Tsarist troops numbering around 9,200," said Szabo Iosif.

He showed us on the model the main moments of the battle, at certain hours, but also the poet's route, the only civilian on the route of the troops, who is marked in four places - in civilian, with his hand raised - the last time being seen in the place known today under the name of the Fantana Spanului [Fountain of the Split].

The chronicles of the time say that the Saxon scholar Anton Kurz was also among those killed in the battle of Albesti.

Annually, the Museum dedicated to the poet Petofi Sandor and the Battle of Albesti on July 31, 1849 was visited before the pandemic by more than 5,000 tourists, including many students from the neighboring country to whom the Hungarian Government provided a documentary tour of the site where the national poet is supposed to have been killed. During the pandemic, the number of visitors decreased significantly.

The poet Petofi Sandor (Sandor Petrovics after his father Stevan Petrovics) was born on January 1, 1823, most likely in Kiskoros, as his birthplace is disputed by several Hungarian cities, and he disappeared on July 31, 1849, in Albesti, being survived by his son, Zoltan, who died in 1870 at the age of 22.

Petofi Sandor was one of the initiators of the 1848 Revolution when, on March 15, 1848, at the Pilvax Café in Budapest, he recited the poem National Song (Nemzeti Dal) for the first time, and Jokai Mor, one of the greatest Hungarian writers, read the 12 points of the Proclamation.

Some of the basic creations of the two great Hungarian writers, Jokai Mor and Petofi Sandor, are on display in the Albesti Museum - including a photocopy of Nemzeti Dal and the first printing of the revolutionary poem - along with many other historical documents of the time, with Romanian revolutionaries being also at the forefront.

Petofi Sandor was born into a modest family and both his father, Stevan Petrovic, and his mother, Maria Hruz, passed away in 1849, his father in March and his mother in May. AGERPRES (RO - author: Dorina Matis, editor: Georgiana Tanasescu; EN - authors: Cristina Zaharia, Bogdan Gabaroi, editor: Adina Panaitescu)