Sándor Petőfi | Origin of Street Names

Sándor Petőfi (1823 - 1849) was the greatest Hungarian poet of Romanticism, a significant inspiration to renowned Serbian writers Đura Jakšić, Jovan Jovanović Zmaj, and Jakov Ignjatović, and one of the leaders of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. He fought for independence and the secession of the Kingdom of Hungary from the Habsburg Monarchy.

He was born in Kiskőrös, a Slovak town in the territory of Hungary, and baptized as Aleksandar Petrović. His father, Stevan (Ištvan) Petrović, was a Hungarian Serb from Baja, and his mother, Marija Hruzova, was a Slovak.

From an early age, Petőfi showed an interest in poetry; however, due to difficult financial circumstances at home, he had to interrupt his education. Wanting to relieve the burden on his parents, he joined the Austro-Hungarian army at the age of 16, serving for a year until he fell seriously ill with typhus.

After being discharged from the hospital and the army, he joined a traveling theater troupe, where he engaged in acting for a while. However, after two years, he left the troupe completely impoverished and in poor health. Nevertheless, during those years, he diligently wrote down verses and composed a collection of his poems, which only lacked a publisher. When he found one and became employed as an editor of a daily newspaper in Pest, the young poet's financial status improved, and he continued to write poems under the pseudonym Petőfi.

Inspired by the wave of uprisings and the establishment of national states across Europe, Petőfi emerged as a great republican and a fighter for the Hungarian national question. During the Battle of Segesvár in Romania in 1849, where the Habsburgs, with the help of the Russians, suppressed the Hungarian uprising, he disappeared without a trace. It is believed that he perished on the battlefield, but his body was never found. At that time, he was only 26 years old.

Following his disappearance, a cult gradually formed around Sándor Petőfi, the great revolutionary and poet who is now considered one of the most prominent figures in modern Hungarian history. Numerous streets, bridges, schools, and libraries in Hungary and countries with Hungarian national minorities bear his name.

It is little known that the widely famous traditional folk song "Na kraj sela Čađava mehana" originated from the pen of Sándor Petőfi.

Today, the name of Petőfi Sándor is given to 113 streets in predominantly Vojvodina cities and villages.