The tune came from the folk song "Kopala studienku" (English: "She was digging a well") suggested to him by his fellow student Jozef Podhradský,[1] a future religious and Pan-Slavic activist and gymnasial teacher.[2] Shortly afterwards, Matúška and about two dozen other students left their prestigious Lutheran lyceum of Pressburg (preparatory high school and college) in protest over the removal of Ľudovít Štúr from his teaching position by the Lutheran Church under pressure from the authorities. The territory of present-day Slovakia was part of the Kingdom of Hungary within the Austrian Empire then, and the officials objected to his Slovak nationalism.