Cultural Goods Related to the Cult of Poet Sándor Petőfi from the Collections of the National Museum of Transylvanian History

Abstract

The study aims to present several cultural goods from the patrimony of the National Museum of Transylvanian History (Muzeul Național de Istorie a Transilvaniei – MNIT) that reflect the cult of poet Sándor Petőfi among Hungarians during the nineteenth century. Sándor Petőfi (1823–1849) is one of the most representative poets of Hungarian literature and one of the most important personalities of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848–1849. Almost all the objects presented throughout this paper, and nowadays included in MNIT’s patrimony, pertained to the collections of two museums that had functioned in Cluj during the nineteenth century: the Transylvanian National Museum (Erdélyi Nemzeti Múzeum) and the Museum of Relics of the 1848–49 Revolution (1848‒49. Országos Történelmi és Ereklye‑Múzeum). The present paper was elaborated on the occasion of celebrating 200 years since the birth of Sándor Petőfi, an event marked by MNIT through the organization of two temporary exhibitions.