Welcome to 2025:

Liz and John with the statue of Schöner Náci (Handsome Ignatius), a beloved and eccentric figure from Bratislava, Slovakia, who lived in the first half of the 20th century. 

The statue (by Juraj Meliš) depicts a real person who was famous locally as a dandy. Ignác Lamár was nicknamed Schöne Náci, meaning ‘Handsome Ignatius’; he appears quite friendly and jolly on the statue, but one story records that his fiancée was deported to a Nazi concentration camp in World War II, where she died.

He was born in Petržalka, (then Hungary) on 11 August 1897, and died of tuberculosis in Lehnice (then Czechoslovakia) on October 23, 1967 . He was originally buried in Lehnice, but his remains were reburied in Bratislava's Ondrejský cemetery on September 2, 2007

Schöner Náci was the son of a shoemaker and grandson of a famous clown, also Ignác Lamár, and was inspired by the latter's example to bring happiness to the streets of the city. He walked around the Old Town and in particular the stretch from Michael's Gate to the river, in top hat and tails, greeting women with the words, “I kiss your hand” in German, Hungarian and Slovak. He received free food from several of the city's cafes, and supported himself with occasional cleaning work

He spent the last years of his life forgotten in a tuberculosis treatment facility in the village of Lehnice, where he died. Only in September 2007 were his remains transported from the local cemetery to the historic Ondrejský cemetery in the Bratislava centre near the graves of several prominent personalities of Slovakia.

In the cemetery, as well as in the neighbouring Medic Garden, you can enjoy the greenery and tranquillity hidden in the very centre of the capital.

Right - The man himself!