A műemlékek sokszínűsége (A 28. Egri Nyári Egyetem előadásai 1998 Eger, 1998)

Előadások / Presentations - ÁGOSTHÁZI László: Szántódpuszta, a large farm in baroque style

LÁSZLÓ ÁGOSTHÁZI SZÁNTÓDPUSZTA, A LARGE FARM IN BAROQUE STYLE INTRODUCTION Before addressing the topic contained in the title, we had better go back to the beginnings of monument protection. May I remind you that in the middle of the last century only antique relics and some of the most outstanding assets of the middle ages were considered worthy of preservation. May I recall also that even in the 1930s, the idea of protecting a Bauhaus work would still occur to few people. By now, we have witnessed the broadening of the scope of the concept of preservation: no one is surprised any more to hear about the safeguarding of the outstanding pieces of mining, industrial or transport heritage. Protection for the built assets of farming has also become acknowledged virtually under our eyes: the new trends in thinking, evolving after the second world war, extended care to this field as well. As a result, the Mezőhegyes site and the buildings at Szántódpuszta are now considered a special class of Hungary's built heritage. In the broadened context of conservation now including new fields of architecture, a whole range of new problems related to maintenance and restoration are added to those common with classical ranking assets. Among them, the two basic questions arising are: - whether these assets should and may be saved; - if it is decided to save them from perishing, what tools may be used and in what way. The above problems, among others, have also cropped up in relation to Szántódpuszta, lying right next to the south shore of Lake Balaton, just across Tihany. When the ensemble was restored, these questions were answered. The main conclusions drawn from the restoration of Szántódpuszta are, therefore, worthy of interest. A BRIEF HISTORY OF SZÁNTÓDPUSZTA There is hardly any literature available on the architectural features, and even less on the architectural history of manors, i.e. the production centres of large farms, which acquired decisive significance in Hungarian agriculture in the last century. Studies carried out focussed mainly on the ethnographic aspects and give thorough coverage of the interior design of agricultural dwellings, the lifestyle and work of agricultural labourers. Hardly any architectural analysis of farming buildings is available. This may be part of the reason for the virtually total lack of any literature on the architectural history or the conservation of manors.

2 No summary of the local history of Szántódpuszta was available, either. Recent historical research has brought to light so far unknown facts about the history of the place.

3 Hence, now the essence of local history is known. Written records allow you to trace the history of Szántódpuszta back to the founding of the Tihany Benedictine abbey: Szántód is mentioned, under the name of Kak-szarma (Koku-zarma), among the estates donated to the abbey by our king Andrew 1st /1046-1060/ in the statutes dated 1055. The estate is also referred to by later dated certificates as being owned by the abbey. During Turkish occupation (16th to 17th centuries), the name of Szántód does not appear, the place was presumably totally deserted, with only 8