Cseri Miklós - Bereczki Iboly - Kovács Zsuzsa (szerk.): Ház és ember, A Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum évkönyve 21. (Szentendre, Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, 2009)

Juhász László: A településszerkezet és az építkezés változásai Mezőcsáton a honfoglalás korától a 20. század végéig

László Juhász Changes in the structure of the settlement structure and architecture in Mezőcsát from the time of the hungarian conquest up to the end of the 20th century Several short studies have been published earlier about the vernacular architecture of the regions Mezőség and Bükkalja in the southern part of Borsod county, but no monographic work, like the author's has been written about the region so far. Mezőcsát is a community that has preserved the characteristics of the folk culture of the region Mezőség, shows the characteristics of the development of a village in the Great Hungarian Plain (Alföld), from the medieval small-village structure to the system of two farmsteads in the village (one with the dwelling house, the other one with the stables in an other part of the village), to the development of the system of detached farmsteads surrounding the town up to the fast changes of recent times. The first part of the study sums up the history of the community Mezőcsát and of its architecture based on archaeological and historic sources from the beginning to the end of the Middle-Ages. Based on archaeological excavations in the town and in its outskirts, the author presents traces referring to construction and communal organisation from the prehistoric age up to the migration time. After this he summarises the data referring to the construction activities in the age of the Hungarian conquest, the period of the Arpad dynasty and the later periods of the Middle-Ages and compares them with archaeological results obtained in the closer neighbourhood and in other parts of Hungary. The following part of the study analyses the economic upswing in the decades before the period, which had a profound impact on the settlement history of Mezőcsát: the period of the Turkish occupation and continues with the analyses of the effects of the destruction during the occupation and of the changes of the living environment. The upswing after the Turkish occupation changed the settlement structure essentially. The presentation of the characteristics of the settlement structure with two separate farmsteads in the village and of its farm buildings and the economic and communal functions of the two separate farmsteads is followed by the analysis of the processes of change of the dwelling houses and their furnishings in the 18th and 19th centuries. Depending on the geographic environment and on the wealth of the builders, the changes of the structure, of the building materials, of the look and of the functions of use are determinant in the traditional architecture of Mezőcsát. The author presents the changes, which took place in the settlement structure, in the construction and in the use of the houses between the mid 19th and the mid 20th century and refers to the impact of the important political and social transformation upon the town's settlement structure, economy, construction activities, use of house and mentality of the inhabitants in the mid 19th century. He mentions the increasing differences between the social layers in the construction and furnishing of their houses. In a separate chapter he deals with the construction of houses of high level of the petty nobles, with their characteristics, materials and use of house. The study presents the public buildings defining the townscape's characteristics, analyses the architecture of the town's landowners and bestows attention to their influence on the ways of construction of well-to-do families and of the strengthening bourgeoisie. The author analyses the changes of the townscape at the beginning of the 20th century. Several archaic characteristics have been preserved till the recent past in the buildings of the detached farms and vineyards: perceivable in the way of wall construction, in the use of material and in the furnishing. The last part of the study is dedicated to the negative changes in the architecture of the socialist period, to today's townscape and to the neglects in the preservation of traditional architecture. 121