Cseri Miklós, Füzes Endre (szerk.): Ház és ember, A Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum évkönyve 8. (Szentendre, Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, 1992)

KECSKÉS PÉTER: Présházak és pincék a Dél Dunántúlon

PRESS-HOUSES AND CELLARS IN SOUTHERN TRANSDANUBIA The study, part of a research project, discusses 18th-19th century constructions of grape-processing and the storage of wine in Southern Transdanubia and adjacent areas. The author examines buildings situated outside of villages and market towns because the serfs and peasants of this region, taken in the broader sense, erected such buildings first of all in the outer areas and auxiliary settlements ("tartozéktelepülések"). Accordingly the use of vineyards and the formation of wine-growing communities ("hegyközségek") are also treated (111. 3-7). The importance of the study lies in the description of the functional and architectural changes in the ground plans of vineyard constructions, as earlier research was based on sparse data obtained from sources that were unevenly distributed over the region. Above-ground building for the processing of grapes and storing wine were mainly characteristic of the western part of Southern Transdanubia. After describing one-room vineyard structures used for more than one purpose (111. 8), presshousecellars (111. 9-12), are discussed, as the archetype. The augmented versions of press-cellars allow of the conclusion that before the phylloxera invasion in 1885 the vineyards had been complex units of agriculture with parts of the building made fit for accommodating the vine-dresser and extensions or outbuildings serving the purposes of animal husbandry and the storage of hay. The range of vineyard constructions from twodivision press-house-cum-cellars to the buildings of 6 to 7 rooms does not represent a line of evolution because on the same hill under vine buildings of widely different ground plans could be erected at the same time, subject to the demand and socialeconomic level of local and absentee owners. Accordingly the author distinguishes twin cellars with press-house (111. 13), presshouse-cum-cellars augmented with a room (111. 14-21), presshouse-cum-cellars with stable (111. 22-23), press-house-cumcellars with barn (111. 24), and L-shaped or "bent" press-housecum-cellars (111. 25). The press-house on ground level with a pit-cellar beneath is characteristic of the southern and south-eastern areas of the region at issue. Whether the wine-cellar under the press house was hewn out or built of stone or brick and vaulted depended on the consistence of the ground (111. 26-32). Besides pit-cellars with a press-house above, which was the archetype, vineyard buildings augmented with dwelling-room and stable were also erected especially in the second half of the 19th century (111. 33-38). The pit cellars hewn or constructed underground for the purpose of storing wine, occur in the eastern strip of Southern Transdanubia, along the river Danube. More than once, they belong to a cave-dwelling or constitute rows of cellars by the village (111. 39-10). In the last quarter of the 19th century a trend toward standardization began. The number of two-floor or split-level vineyard buildings (press-houses with underground storage cellar, ensuring even temperatures), increased (111. 41-43). The author had the opportunity to compare his own conclusions based on questionnaires (111. 44) with the maps of the Magyar Néprajzi Atlasz (Hungarian Ethnographical Atlas) (111. 1-2). Using these maps, recording conditions in the middle of the 19th century found at 250investigation locations, the author could establish sub-regional differences in the eastern part of the region examined.