Cseri Miklós, Füzes Endre (szerk.): Ház és ember, A Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum évkönyve 6. (Szentendre, Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, 1990)
BENCSIK JÁNOS: A tokaji pinceházak
CELLAR-HOUSES IN TOKAJ From the middle of the 16th century Tokaj has become known for producing Hungarian wines of high quality. The villages in the hilly region called collectively Tokaj-Hegyalja had such a natural environment, then grape-growing and wine-making techniques, that ensured for them domination of the wine export towards the north, and world-fame for their remarkable „Tokaji" wines. The small town of Tokaj became gradually the centre of this area, rich in traditions. We know little more of the historic traditions of Tokaj, including the features of life belonging to the realm of etnography, like vernacular architecture. In spite of the fact that the inhabitants of Tokajhegyalja were in general better off than those of neighbouring Nyírség, there was a minority which lived the hard life of cotters. Without researching into the causes of this phenomenon, we only state here that not even Tokaj can be left out of the zone of primitive dwellings. The „hegylába", the foothills thickly covered with loess, practically offered themselves as sites for digging simple pince-házak (cellar houses). These steep hillsides set, at the same time, the limits until the town (Tokaj) could spread. On the other hand the loess walls were suitable for making cheap flats hewn out of them for poor families. The existence of cellar-houses are also proved by pieces of archivalia, growing in number after the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. With the help of these sources we can draw a picture of the cellar houses of those times: their entrance in the front wall, the doors, sometimes, when there was enough room for them, windows, the roof above the entrance, even the heating devices. We can learn that a door was cut into the front wall , the door was fitted out with a lock, if it was possible there was even a window. The heating device was topped by a chimney made of pacsit (wattle woven of thicker than usual sticks) sártapasszal i.e. daubed from inside. At the same time it was often complained of that the cellar house had no chimney that is the smoke was conducted to the open through a simple kürtő (flue). Of the furniture we know that a simple bed with an eiderdown and pillow (both filled with goose feathers) served as a resting place. The data gathered from written sources can be completed by examining the cellar houses still existing. In three streets of the town named Váradi utca, Táncsics utca and Danczkapart, there still are cellar houses. Six of them have been surveyed, and information concerning their use gathered. Five are no more dwelt in. Some have been turned into store-rooms for fuel wood, others into pigsties. The ensemble of three cellar-houses, pit cellars immediately following each other, described under No. 3, is however worthy of our attention. At No. 7 in Táncsics utca (Táncsics Street) there still is a cellar house in use. Its owners, Mr. and Mrs. Sándor VARGA still live in their old home consisting of kitchen and „room". The comparatively small „fiat" is crowded with furniture and articles of use. The family owns, among others a television set. Electricity is lead in so they could equip their household with the basic implements.
