Solymos Ede: Élet a Dunán. A halászok, vízen járók élete Baján és környékén. A Türr István Múzeum Élet a Dunán című kiállításának vezetője - A Bajai Türr István Múzeum kiadványai 29. (Baja, 2004)

Life on the Danube

The Danube is Europe’s second largest river-it connects remote regions and provides men with water, fish, energy and gold washed out of the sand, or destroys the land with its floods but definitely determines life wherever it flows.

With its large floodplain and lots of tributaries, the stretch of the Danube under the town of Paks has always been a favourite area for fish and fishermen alike. You can find about 40 different fishes in this part of the river. Prior to regulating the river, up to the 20th century, Beluga sturgeons (Huso huso), each weighing hundreds of kilograms, swam up from the Black Sea in shoals every spring and autumn. The right to catch this fish was a bestowment by the king. In the I 7th century, salted Beluga sturgeon in barrels was an important trade item and was sold as far as in Paris. The local population retained water from the spring floods in flood plain lakes in which fish could spawn and breed. Just like other tradesmen, fishermen formed guilds, their letter of privilege, which regulated their work and whole life, was granted by the king. Their emblem depicted a golden carp enelosed in a glass boat. In the southern town of Baja, the fisherman’s guild was established in 1815. Fishing rights were owned by the landlord of the area - in this case mainly by the archbishop of Kalocsa, who leased it to associations of 6-8 members at auctions. Following the abolishment of the guilds and the passing of the law on fishing, the holders of this right formed Fishing Societies. In 1945, waters in lakes and rivers were nationalised and leased to fishing cooperatives. This changed the life of fishermen, as well.

Fishermen lived in round reed shacks or in huts with wattled and mud walls on the waterside from spring till autumn. The six-member bigger groups of fishermen were fishing with sweep-nets of hundreds of metres long, while others used small nets, which could be handled by one or two people, as well as hooks and spears. They made most of their tools themselves, and even the threads for the nets were made at home. Things became much easier in the middle of the 20th century when synthetic yarn came to be used, as it requires less care than hemp or cotton. The catch was sold by the fishermen, themselves on the local fish market, or through fishmongers.

The daly food of fishermen was the fish soup prepared in marmite above an open-air fire. By now, it has become a local specialty, and the „feast of

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