Balassa M. Iván: Báránd (Bihar megye) települése és építkezése (Szentendre: Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, 1985)

SETTLEMENT AND ARCHITECTURE AT BÁRÁND (Summary) The village Báránd is situated on the Great Hungarian Plain, appr. 40 kilometres southeast from Debrecen, in the neighbourhood of Püspökladány. It has always been placed near to main roads of great significance: Budapest-Szolnok-Püspökladány-Nagyvárad (Oradea, Roum.) leading to Transylvania. The village can be found on such a territory, where two different regions of the Great Hungarian Plain are adjoining. Nagykunság can be found to the north and Sárrét to the south. Nagykunság got its name from the Cumanians having settled here in the 13th century. This region can be characterized in the modern time by a well-developed peasant-bourgeois culture, extensive largeanimal-keeping and after the ploughing of pasture lands by farming on a small scale. Sárrét represented a vast marshland till the drainage of the territory in the second half of the 19th century. This can be regarded a special territory of relics, bordering the territory under investigation. Its Hungarian population survived Turkish invasion in the 16-17th century in the protection of the marshland. This place was not destroyed to such an extent as the villages on the openfields of the Great Hungarian Plain. The marshlands favoured animal husbandry, agriculture played a secondary role only. Besides these the ancient way of life has been maintained (plant-gathering, hunting). On basis of the sources available for us we could survey the building style of the last 200 years of Báránd. We have outlined the main periods of development relying upon these findings. We also tried to get an answer to the question, which one of the abovementioned two ethnographic regions influenced more this territory. The earliest data of the settlement of Báránd were contained by a map from 1783. (see figure 1.) This shows a settlement with irregular network of streets. There is no trace of stacking here. On the basis of other sources we could state, that there were adobes on the panel-plots of comparatively big size. According to data from the beginning of the 19th century the living house had three parts (roomkitchen-room). It was obligatory to have a stable and a pig-sty built separately from the living house. Besides these quite early appear with certain levels the sheep-pen and hen-pen. The first great change was the expansion of the settlement. The exact date of it can only be estimated. From the years before 1860 we have only one map made in 1822, this shows the outlines of the inner part of the village only. Based on different evidence it is safe to assume, that this change lasted from the 1810 years appr. to the middle of the 1820 years. As indirect evidence we took into consideration the following facts as well: A new grape and fruit-garden had to be opened beside the one established in the last years of the 18th century, in 1755. The grave yard opened in 1780 became full, it had to be closed and two new ones had to be opened in 1835. The population of the village reached 3000 people by 1821, and 3291 people by 1836 compared to II

50-1200 people living in 1766 in the village. This period can be characterized by the development of quantity, not that of quality. We cannot speak about new building style, or higher standard of craftsmanship or new building materials. The inner part of the village was increased and the number of houses grew suddenly. As a consequence of these facts, the structure of the settlement changed and started the stacking. The next period of development can be exactly connected to the middle of the 1880 years. It lasted till the turn of the 19-20th century. This is the time of changes of quality. With the drainage of the marshes not far from the village the agriculture gained ground and put the inhabitants of Báránd into a better financial position. A new type of the dwelling-house appeared and within a quite short time the whole village was rebuilt. The floor-level of the new dwelling-house was higher, than the level of