Agria 41. (Az Egri Múzeum Évkönyve - Annales Musei Agriensis, 2005)

Zábrátzky Éva: A siroki kő felhasználása a XIX–XX. század folyamán

Éva Zábrátzky The Use of Sirok Stone During the Course of the 18th and 19th Centuries Stone carving can be claimed to be one of the more neglected areas of ethnographic research, and one which has only been discovered relatively recently. Looking at the literature, stone has mainly aroused the interest of ethnographers in the fields of folk architecture and the art of the cemetery. The first studies on the working of stone were written during the 1970s by István Molnár and Ildikó Sándor, with further work being done by József Hála during the 1980s. In Heves County it is Ferenc Bakó's work which has dealt with the rôle of stone in folk architecture, while Gyula Viga has concentrated on the stone-carving centres near Eger at the base of the Bükk Hills (Biikk-alja). Early interest in stone-made objects concentrated on examples in the ecclesiastical and urban spheres, despite the fact that stonework in the villages and out in the countryside displays local formal characteristics. (For example, the stonework in villages as closely situated as Sirok and Tarnaszentmária differs considerably: the gate lintels so frequent in Tarnaszentmária cannot be found at all in Sirok. Although the effect of "high art" cannot be underestimated, as the experience gained by masters and assistants working on urban building projects and in workshops would be applied to their own rural environments, there would also have been some reciprocal influence among the various folk arts. Apart from the importance of folk art one also needs to take into consideration the manner in which the stonecarver lived. Stone provided opportunities for an extensive but now lost artisan class, which was much in demand and in a position to spread the latest fashions within the peasant communities. Although decreasing in number, the carved stone detailing continues to impress its character onto the streets of Sirok. The decorated pillars, and other details originating from demolished houses, are being bought up by antique dealers, and some examples have made their way as far as Germany. The traditional techniques are also being forgotten, and it is for this reason that the stone carvings which do survive need to be recorded at all the county's other stone-carving centres and in those areas where their influence can still be felt. By doing this it will be possible to establish how labour was divided in the villages in question and what the relationships that may have existed between the various centres were like. 334