A Debreceni Déri Múzeum Évkönyve 1968 (Debrecen, 1970)

Dankó Imre: Folk Architecture in two Hajdú-towns

or not, nor is it all clear whether its church was a fortified building. Judging from what it looks like today it seems to have been based on a street-pattern which does not, of course exclude the possibility of some its parts or the church itself having been fortified. The folk architecture of the two town built on sandy soil did not develop a characteristic, individual style either. According to the classification of Bátky—Györffy, these houses also belong to the so-called central-Hungarian, plainland type, They have, however, several distinctive features of their own. The purpose of the present paper is to point out some of these characteristic features: the fairly general use of wood and reed as building material; portico is more peculiar to houses built in the middle of the 19th century than in subsequent times, the roof is gabled, the majority hipped, a small number having a small roof on the front as well. The smoky kitchen is not known for a long time, the kitchen under the open chimney was used also in winter. Therefore, in order to let more light into the kitchen, a small window was cut in the wall near the door. A characteristic part of houses built before the turn of the last century was a deep false window where the water-jug was kept. The houses now consist of three parts, but the development can be traced down to a stage when there was only a double division. These houses have simple earthen floor, the walls are plastered with mud and whitewashed. The paper deals also with the latest developments. The author describes how the buildings are converted for other purposes, in what order, differences between old-time and present-day building techniques are given (square ground-plan, tent-roof, wooden floor, slate or tile roof, etc. (He points out that century-old building techniques and materials survive (cob wall, sun-dried unburnt bricks, etc.). A treatment of the relations of house and grounds, house, grounds and buildings is also given. The author examines the relationship between house and family, house and society; a short passage at the end of the paper treats superstitions concerning the building of houses. 324