Bereczki Ibolya - Sári Zsolt: Ház és Ember, A Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum évkönyve 28-29. (Szentendre, Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, 2017)
POZSONY FERENC: A ház és lakáskultúra változása a háromszéki Zabolán
Ferenc Pozsony THE TRANSFORMATION OF HOUSE AND INTERIOR DESIGNS IN ZABOLA, HÁROMSZÉK In all the periods of history, people in Zabola of different social layers (people of title, primipilus, infantrymen, serfs, artisans, merchants and intellectuals) always lived in houses that corresponded with their economic potential, their occupation and their position in society. Consequently dwelling houses would represent well defined social status and prestige, they not only precisely reflected the economic levels and patterns of life of the families living there, but also their aesthetic nature and also their sense of taste. The crofts of noble families (the Basas, the Mikeses) were normally decorated with gates made of stone or brick. The plots of the primipilus, who considered the gentry way of life an example to follow, were adorned with covered carved wooden large size gates. Up to the mid-20th century infantry families had their gates timbered from wood, in the structure of which only the columns of the small gate were joined and covered. The corner eaves house regarded as a specific Szekler house was quite common in this Orbaiszék village, too in the 18th century. A few of these houses survived up to the early 20th century with smaller or larger modifications in the use of tradition preserving families, with their characteristic furnishings (e.g. fireplace tiles, chests) which survived as relic objects up to the end of the 20th century. The members of the emerging social stratum of farmers built large size mid-eaves houses here, too in the mid-19th century, which were mostly furnished with Art Nouveau furniture of urban origin. The local variations of this type of house disappeared due to the violent modernisation accompanying the 1962 collectivisation. The folk architecture and interior design of the houses of Háromszék farmer families will be represented by this house with a long porch from Zabola by the Hungarian Open Air Museum in the framework of the planned Transylvanian regional unit. The ornately cut, jig sawed wooden porched dwelling houses have defined the individual looks of the Szekler, Romanian, and Gipsy houses in Zabola up to the present. Mostly following Hungarian and Transylvanian urban examples, cube shaped houses appeared only in the first decades after VWVII in Zabola after the collectivisation in 1962, after the violent confiscation of lands, big farm animals and working equipment. Alpine villas emerged after the change of regime in 1989 on the plots of successful Szekler, Gypsy and Romanian entrepreneurs who were active in the economy and on the crofts of intellectuals living locally. Their interior furnishings and household items are defined by the advertisements, commercials and films seen on television and on the web. That is the reason why their life and interiors follow a unified, global pattern. The mentioned types of houses were not clear-cut types in Zabola either, as they had numerous transient or individual features in accordance with the economic potency, life strategy and life-style pattern and aesthetic nature of the family living there, and the situation and the dimensions of the plot. At the same time a kind of heterogeneity can be observed in their furnishings. For example in the long porched houses built at the beginning of the 20th century, these days one can find different Art Nouveau furniture, mid-20th century custom made kitchen and bedroom furnishings, mass produced suites of furniture during the years of socialism, and also older and newer household items made of wood, iron and plastic, hygienic corners with washbasins, rustic bathrooms converted from part of the pantry or postmodern bathrooms with Jacuzzi. 315
