Júlia Szendrey
Szendrey Júlia Júlia Szendrey (29 December 1828 – 6 September 1868) was a Hungarian poet, writer and translator, most known as the wife of celebrated Hungarian poet Sándor Petőfi.
Also recorded as Julia Szendrey
Júlia Szendrey

Dr Varga József · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Nationality
- Hungary.
- Occupation
- poet, translator and writer.
- Languages
- Hungarian.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Szendrey Júlia Júlia Szendrey (29 December 1828 – 6 September 1868) was a Hungarian poet, writer and translator, most known as the wife of celebrated Hungarian poet Sándor Petőfi.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
No house-authored Note is published until its assertions and sources pass the VALÉORINE evidence contract. The documentary article remains available in full while that enrichment is being consolidated.
Documentary enrichment in progress · no unsupported statement published
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Júlia Szendrey. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
Documentary evidence
Evidence Panel
conflicted · checked 25 September 2026
- Identity
- resolved
- Independent source families
- 0
- Admitted assertions
- 0
- Open conflicts
- 0
Authority files
wikidata · Q939159 · wikipedia · Júlia Szendrey
In this article
Life and works
Life and works
• Illustration — Szendrey's statue in Kiskőrös Júlia Szendrey was born in Újmajor, Keszthely, her father was Ignác Szendrey (1800–1895), a farm overseer for various noble families during his career, including the Festetics family and the Károlyi family. Her mother was Anna Gálovics. She spent four years studying in Pest at an institute for daughters of affluent families. She was fluent in foreign languages, played the piano and liked dancing, however, she was not fond of parties and showing her skills to others. She was happiest reading poems and books, of Heinrich Heine, George Sand and the like. As she was an educated lady, fond of literature and poetry, she immediately fell in love with Sándor Petőfi, when they met in Nagykároly in 1846. Despite opposition from her family, the couple got married a year later in Erdőd. As the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 broke out, Petőfi also joined the army, and moved his family to Debrecen. Their son, Zoltán was born on 15 December 1848. When Petőfi disappeared during the war, and then was reported dead, Szendrey was incapable of accepting it. She traveled to Transylvania to look for him, and also applied for a passport to Turkey, should her husband be there. As she was denied traveling abroad, in despair, she turned to a trustworthy friend, historian Árpád Horvát. They got married in 1850, which was then frowned upon and for decades, Szendrey was stigmatized for her decision to remarry, and also for various rumours surrounding her behaviour, fuelled by writings and poems of well-known literary figures like János Arany. She possibly married him looking for protection. Decades after her death, her long lost diary was recovered and partially published, dispelling previous accusations. Szendrey bore four children for Horvát, while her relationship with her first-born son Zoltán deteriorated, as the young man was increasingly living his life like his father, Petőfi did. He eventually died very young from tuberculosis, in 1870. In the 1850s, Szendrey wrote several poems, a diary and she translated several of Hans Christian Andersen's tales. Her second marriage also ended in tragedy. She was diagnosed with cervical cancer, and suddenly in 1867 she decided to separate from her husband and moved to a small apartment in Pest, financed by her father. In her diary, she wrote that her second husband was not loyal to her, and he forced her to do her "conjugal duty" even after a doctor warned him that she was sick. She died in that small apartment in 1868, on her deathbed she dictated a letter to her father that read, "Father said I would be unhappy with Sándor. A woman has not yet experienced such happiness that I felt when I was together with my Sándor. I was his queen, he adored me and I adored him. We were the happiest couple in the world, and had fate not intervened, we would still be so." After reading her letter, where she confessed of the wrongdoings of her husband, her father did not allow Horvát to bury her, he himself arranged the funeral. 60 years after Petőfi's death, she was laid to rest with the rest of the Petőfi family members in Kerepesi Cemetery, the inscription on the tomb includes her birth name and identifies her as Sándor Petőfi's wife, even though she died as Árpád Horvát's spouse.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1828
Júlia Szendrey born at Keszthely.
1868
Júlia Szendrey died at Pest.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Keszthely.
Birth place
Pest.
Death place
Memorials
There are several statues of Júlia Szendrey in Hungary, for example in Kiskőrös and in Mezőberény. In 2018, her statue was erected in Copenhagen at the Hungarian embassy building.
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Júlia Szendrey”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q939159: Júlia Szendrey
Reputable secondary · Wikidata
authority file
References ==== External links
References ==== External links
• Poems of Júlia Szendrey, 2019, Petőfi Literary Museum • Gyimesi Emese: Szendrey Júlia versgyűjteménye a Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Kézirattárában (Júlia Szendrey's Collection of Poems in the Manuscript Archive of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Irodalomtörténeti Közlemények 2012. CXVI. évfolyam 1. szám 83-91. • Gyimesi Emese: „Ugy jártok, mint a pillangó, mely a tűzbe száll” Szendrey Júlia irodalmi pályájának problémakörei (“You are going to end up like the butterfly that flies into the fire” Problems of Júlia Szendrey's Literary Career), 2000, 2013, 2. sz., 48–60. • Gyimesi Emese: Hungarian female writers after the Revolution and War of Independence of 1848–1849, in: ISHA Summer Seminar. Special Edition of a Student Historiography Journal, 2014, 86–96. • Gyimesi Emese: Urban Space Through Children’s Eyes: The Image of Pest-Buda in the 1860s, in: Identity, Nation, City: Perspectives From The TEMA Network, edited by Jaroslav Ira, Jan de Jong, Imre Tarafás. Atelier European Social Science and Historiography Department, Budapest, 2015, 251–265. • Interview with Emese Gyimesi (PhD) about her poems: Szendrey Júlia - Egy nő több, mint csak asszony, HVG, 2018.12.29. • Szendrey Júlia összes verse (The Complete Poems of Júlia Szendrey) Sajtó alá rendezte, a kísérőtanulmányt, a jegyzeteket és az életrajzot írta Gyimesi Emese, Budapest, Kortárs, 2018. • Gyimesi Emese: "God, how we all grow" The Family of Júlia Szendrey at Hársfa Street • Gyimesi Emese: Gyermekszemmel Szendrey Júlia családjában - Szendrey Júlia, Petőfi Zoltán, Horvát Attila, Árpád és Ilona gyermekkori levelei, versei és játékai 1840 - 1870. Budapest, Magyar Családtörténetek: Források 2., 2019.)

Szendrey Júlia, készült: 1859
Gsoveny
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.National Archives of Hungary. Szabadság és szerelem.
- 2.Szinnyei József. Magyar írók élete és munkái. Magyar Elektronikus Könyvtár. 1891.
- 3.Szendrey Júlia halála. Rubicon.
- 4.familysearch.org. Szendrey Ignác gyászjelentése.
- 5.Hetek. Júlia, az elátkozott özvegy - Petőfi özvegyének igazi arca. 2017-03-10.
- 6.Irodalomismeret. Szendrey Júlia mint költő, műfordító, múzsa és nő.
- 7.Dr. Varga József. Petőfi család.
- 8.Sonline. Szobrot kapott Koppenhágában Szendrey Júlia. 2018-12-07.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Partially resolvedauthority file
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
38,377 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Julia Pérez Montes de OcaAuthor
- Julia PeterkinAuthor
- Julia QuinnAuthor
- Júlia SigmondAuthor
- Julia UcedaAuthor
- Julia VoznesenskayaAuthor
- Julia Ward HoweAuthor
- JulianAuthor
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Júlia Szendrey?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.