A Debreceni Déri Múzeum Évkönyve 1966-1967 (Debrecen, 1968)

Dankó Imre: Hajdúböszörmény népi építkezése

Imre Dankó The popular architecture of Hajdúböszörmény This paper is a complete whole, but nevertheless part of a major study that deals in a comprehensive manner with the houses of County Hajdú and the popular architecture there. Apart from this paper, so far only the first part of the study was published under the title House Types at Hajdúnánás (Ethnographia LXXV. (1964) 1. 58-92). This paper on the popular architecture of Hajdúböszörmény ought to be read with reference to the study. Hajdúböszörmény is an ancient town, originating from the ll-12th centuries. It is the largest of the "old Heyduck towns" settled by Prince István Bocskai; for a long time it had been the centre, the seat of an independent administrative unit, the Heyduck District. It is most significant as a settlement type, being the typical instance of the so-called garden settlements. It is composed of two parts: the centre, the one-time, crammed medieval town, surrounded by a broad, deep ditch with palisades on the top, and the surrounding garden area, also entrenched. The latter area included the stables, pens, farm buildings. In the course of the 18th century the garden area became gradually inhabited; as the area proved not large enough for the increasing population, a new settlement arose round the gardens, the so-called Újosztás, and more settlements later on, became Kisböszörmény. By the beginning of the 20th century, also the nearby, old vineyards such as inhabited, and this process is still going on here. By the middle of the 19th century, the community of Hajdúböszörmény underwent intens differentiation. In addition to the well-to-do descendants of the aboriginal Heyducks, this town has the largest population and the largest number of poor inhabitants. The economic-social differences are clearly manifest also in the manner of building. There are two types of house in Hajdúböszörmény: the peasant house, and the urban house, or the house of wealthy peasants, collectively called town-houses. It is especially the latter that reflect intensely the architecture of nearby Debrecen. Hajdúböszörmény lies at the dividing line of the black, hard soil of the Great Plain and the sandy, loose soil of the Nyírség. The town proper lies on the hard ground, but the eastern outskirts are erected on sand. This mixed character of the soil does not appear from the architecture of the town as its core stands on the hard, solid ground and this leaves its marks on the maimer of building. The peasant houses of Böszörmény fit the surroundings very well. The building material is earth, which is used in a most varied manner for building. The oldest type and technique is the socalled earth-house or shack. None of these exist any more, just as there are no houses with mudflake walls or mud-walling work. These primitive techniques survive in the manner of constructing outbuildings (pigsties, stables, ice-pits). Mud-wall building is still widespread, but the majority of houses is made of adobe. The natural resources of Hajdúböszörmény are highly favourable to yielding clay of adequate quantity and quality. The peasant houses of Hajdúböszörmény have hipped roofs with terminal frontages and are covered with reed, formerly with straw. The old type of chimney was called chemise-chimney and was made of wicker-work and planks, and covered at the top. The successor of this old, extremely inflammable chimney is the characteristic, covered brick chimney of Böszörmény, of which some specimens have survived to our days. Most of the chimneys have been rebuilt into slim, socalled patent chimneys when heating equipment was modernised. The peasant houses of Hajdúböszörmény have developed from a single compartment into houses with two, and then there compartments; the typical three-division house consists of the kitchen (this has two parts: the kitchen proper in the front, with the chimney corner, the fireplace, the bench in the rear), the living-room (called the big house, upper house, or just house by the peasants), and of the pantry. The pantry was converted into a room in many houses by the end of the 19th century. Two fireplaces were used in such houses as a result, and the former room was converted into the so-called clean room. To replace the pantry, annexes were built to the houses. Yet this was not the case everywhere, as 420