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

Sabján Tibor (1952–2009)

Tibor Sabján 14th March 1952 - 4th April 2009 The ethnographer-architect of the Hungarian Open Air Museum Szentendre passed away on the 4th April 2009 due to a long, serious disease. He was born in Szekszárd; in 1970 he finished his studies as architect technician and in 1974 he got his degree as production engineer in the speciality of overground construction. He had been working for nearly 33 years in the Skanzen from 25th June 1976 till his death. He studied ethnography in Debrecen between 1980 and 1985 and graduated with his diploma work about vernacular tiled stoves. He started his career in the Hungarian Open Air Museum in Szentendre as an architect and very soon he had a decisive role in the young institution due to the fast following dismantling and relocating of buildings. Tibor Sabján deserves credit for the elaboration of the technical plans of several buildings in the Skanzen, for the design of almost every heating system and for the inspection of the practical construction works. From the eighties and nineties he extended his interest to the research of the history of vernacular cast-iron stoves. From 1997 he had been working in the Ethnographic Department and achieved the setting up of the windmill from Dusnok and furnished the mill as a permanent exhibition. Parallel to his tasks in the construction of the Market Town of the Great Plains (Alföld), he furnished the Hoers' House from Mád and the Merchant's House from Mád in the regional unit Upland Market Town built between 2003 and 2006, furthermore, he undertook the creation of the permanent exhibition "There was once an oven". As participant in the Skanzen's ethnographic researches in Transylvania, Tibor Sabján had the opportunity to extend his field-work to the heating systems in the Carpathian basin. Hungarian archaeologists engaged in the research of the Middle-Ages discovered his special knowledge in both ethnography and architecture: Tibor Sabján became their indispensible colleague. He was expert for uncountable archaeological explorations. His first book on vernacular ovens was followed by many excellent books accessible also for the greater public during the last two decades. He achieved unique results as an ethnographer, architect and graphic artist as well and he left a rich but uncompleted life-work. We publish in this book the last interview with Tibor Sabján, the funeral oration delivered by Dr. Miklós Cseri during the funeral ceremony at the cemetery of Szentendre and the writing of Dr. Ibolya Bereczki about Tibor Sabján. 291