A Békés Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei 21. (Békéscsaba, 2000)

Ando György: The farms around Békéscsaba

Ando György The farms around Békéscsaba - György Ando Résumé Formation, changing and development of the farm-stead-like form of settlement following the re-population of Békéscsaba - which became a dominant part of the economic life of Csaba town during the history - have already been a surveyed area for scientists. The farm-stead of Csaba (sálas) as the object of ethnographic research, however, is a less elaborated topic in the available manuscripts, publications or professional literatures in spite of the fact that the farms and the life, husbandry characteristic of them connected and even today connect in some degree organically to the ethnography and history of Békéscsaba. The buildings of the farms and the husbandry taking place there played a significant role in the economic life of the town. The farmbuildings and the urban houses formed a unity in some degree. The farm-buildings together with the out-buildings belonging to them show a relatively uniform picture in the fields around Békéscsaba. In the 40s of the 18

th century the dwellings, the later farms formed in the border of Csaba went through more changes during their development. Studying the buildings of the primitive hole-houses made of reed, then the screened types formed later, eventually the farms gaining their current shape we can discover a certain parallel with the buildings formed in the inner town of Békéscsaba. The forms of the dwelling parts of the farms, their building techniques in a simpler way and with some time-gap followed the changes, modifications appearing in the urban houses. On the farms the screened and the fore-porched houses also appeared. One type of the houses in Csaba, the house with baroque or classicist front, however, never showed up in the environment of the farms. György Ando Munkácsy Mihály Museum Békéscsaba Széchenyi Street 9. 5600 196