A Song about the Copper Cannon

The "star" of the renovated Székely National Museum is undoubtedly still Áron Gábor's cannon. On 18 August 1906, almost sixty years after the defeat of the 1848-49 Hungarian War of Independence, the barrel of one of the cannons that made armed self-defence possible to a considerable extent in Covasna County was found during pipeline construction works in the courtyard of the Rudolf Hospital in Târgu Secuiesc. Two replicas of the relic were made by craftsmen in Târgu Secuiesc before being transported to the Romanian National History Museum in 1971. One of them was placed in the courtyard of the museum in Târgu Secuiesc and the other in the courtyard of the museum in Sfântu Gheorghe.

The original cannon was only returned to Sfântu Gheorghe in 2010, after lengthy political preparations, but it had already become a legend long before that. According to tradition, the song about it was written during the Hungarian War of Independence, but an analysis of the melody puts the moment at the beginning of the 20th century. Based on the opinion of the musicologist Károly Jagamas, it may have originated from a song by a known songwriter, but the original is not known. In any case, it is considered to be one of the songs of 1848-49.

During the modernisation works of the Székely National Museum, the cannon toured Hungary and was exhibited in seven locations. It is expected to be on show again in Sfântu Gheorghe in September 2023 in a modern, digitally-enriched exhibition environment.

Samu Csinta