Móric Beňovský is rightly considered the greatest Slovak adventurer who did not come from the pen of an inventive writer. His short but extremely colourful life continues to fascinate to this day and is difficult to describe in a few sentences, let alone a single novel. Count Móric Beňovský, full name Matúš Móric František Serafín Augustus Benyovský, was born on September 20, 1746 in Vrbovo. He died on May 23, 1786 at the age of 39 in a battle on the island of Madagascar.
He first worked as an officer in the Austrian army. After dissenting political views, he joined the Polish army, where he defended the territory of our northern neighbours against Russian intervention. He was captured and would have died in a labour camp in Siberia had it not been for the escape. It was the escape from persecution that sent him, together with other prisoners, from Kamchatka to the unknown waters of the North Pacific, making him the first European to overtake the famous explorer James Cook by a few years. When he landed in France a few years later, his personality attracted the attention of King Louis XVI himself. He offered him the rank of general and the opportunity to represent the interests of France in troubled Madagascar. It was there that the local chiefs elected him king a few years later, in recognition of his approach to the local tribes. He participated in the US Civil War, met President George Washington and was a friend of Benjamin Franklin and many other personalities of the time.
He literally travelled the whole world. From China, through Japan, Brazil, the Caribbean to European capitals. In 1785, he returned to Madagascar again, but this time in the service of England, fighting against the interests of France. Both his extraordinary and adventure-filled life and Madagascar's efforts for independence were ended by a French counterattack in Mauritania, his own ambitious kingdom he founded in Madagascar. Today, a street and a statue commemorate the famous Slovak native in Madagascar.
The author of the common motif of the countries of Hungary, Poland and Slovakia is the artist and graphic artist Adrian Ferda, who also worked on the joint edition of the Vyšehrad Group. The central motif is a portrait of Beňovský from an authentic and thus non-idealized painting of the period, on the right side a historic sailing ship, typical of his numerous travels. Below it is a scene from Madagascar, where the natives carry him as their future king on a makeshift throne. On the Slovak edition, there is still his birthplace in Vrbovo, on the Hungarian there is a compass as a symbol of a traveller and a well-rounded person, on the Polish edition there is a battle scene of the then Polish army, alongside which he also fought against the Russian intervention in Poland.
Móric Beňovský is an important personality who is remembered not only in Slovakia but also in neighbouring Hungary and Poland.
Joint edition MÓRIC BEŇOVSKÝ
SK edition
Circulation: 5000 pcs (4000 pcs regular edition, 1000 pcs Anniversary edition)
