The Chain Bridge Széchenyi threatened in an anonymous letter
MúzeumCafé 17.
Among all his many works it was the Chain Bridge which generated the most profound feelings for Count István Széchenyi. That is not surprising given that the project had “a difficult birth”. Numerous obstacles had to be overcome before Miklós Barabás could capture in his famous painting the moment when the bridge’s foundation stone was laid. Why was the banker György Sina, who was of Greek origin, the subject of hostility in connection with the bridge? The reason was because he gave money to the project, without which Széchenyi’s plan to have a bridge built would have been doomed to failure from the start, since under no circumstances would he have been able to count on financial support from the state authorities. However, there was one way of covering the costs – by winning over György Sina. The Military Council put obstacles in the way of building the bridge as its members were totally against the project. Probably thanks to Palatine Joseph, their aims could not be realised. The toughest opposition came from the town authorities of both Pest and Buda. They stood to lose the income from the tariffs imposed on use of their ‘boat bridge’, and so became Széchenyi’s bitterest enemies. How much he suffered due to his obtuse and petty-minded countrymen can only be guessed at. However, the vicious struggle between the bridge’s supporters and its opponents is reflected by a verse sent in an anonymous letter, which is today held by the Danube Museum in Esztergom. Its author, considering the language difficulties of the Hungarian aristocracy – possibly his own, too – sent it to Széchenyi in both Hungarian and German. In the verse there is mention of “Gireg”, that is ‘the Greek’, whose “dog’s-body” was Széchenyi. The bridge was built on 21 November 1849.