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

Előadások / Presentations - SISA Béla: Folk houses

repair work. With these and other support grants provided by the Board, a very thin protecting net manages to cover the registered folk monuments. We know three ways of rescuing folk monuments. Keeping them in situ is the best way, then comes transporting them to village museums, and the third method involves technical documentation and survey. In respect to technical surveys we have excellent results. A huge number of student groups, college and university students and pupils go round the country and conduct surveys of fine monuments. If these buildings cannot be kept in situ or taken to village museums then surveys and documentation is the last resort. At present we arc about to conduct a national survey in order to get a couple of hundred important buildings under protection. Since folk monuments are endangered, they can disappear without trace, and the structures and forms will not reappear. We hope to be able to increase the number of protected houses, which as they say have only a theoretical value. However, if only the land had to be purchased and the building constructed today the cost would amount to a billion forints even without the theoretical value. There are six areas of folk architecture under protection in Hungary. A protected area is valuable only if it can provide something extra from our point of view, if at least one folk house operates and visitors and experts not only see façades but can have a look inside a nicely renovated building. Our six protected areas are situated in exceptionally beautiful parts of the country, The Tihany old village is at the foot of the castle and the church in Tihany on the northern side of Lake Balaton. It has three folk houses, which can be visited throughout the year. The fishermen's guild-house and the small-holder's cottage operate as a small unit in the centre of Tihany. The third is a new house which was restored in the 1970s as a tourist office. It was acquired by a private owner but we managed to conclude an agreement stating that he operates a private folk house in the first two rooms. Szigliget is another beautiful protected unit near Lake Balaton. Szigliget did not have a folk house before, it is under renovation now. It was a butcher's shop with a residential house next-door. The building of the museum for the local history collection is being built now. Thus Szigliget is also going to have houses of this character. The village of Szalafő in the sub-alpine area of western Hungary has a village museum in a so-called cluster of buildings, which consists of seven small residential quarters. It is a beautiful part of the country with thatched cottages with logged walls. This the only set of buildings renovated a relatively long time ago. This is where we can see a so-called fenced house, the only building of this character in Hungary, which can be seen in its original place. Another interesting sight is the small two-storey building for storing food, called kástu by the locals. This is also the only one in the country still in situ. The village of Fertőrákos of medieval origin is protected with a castle wall. The peasant houses here have a strong character of town houses on the periphery of folk architecture, representing a border line. The folk house has been renovated recently with the help of the Messerschmidt Foundation. The only protected folk architectural complex on the Great Plain can be found in the town of Csongrád. It is situated on the area of a former earth mounding in a bend of the River Tisza. The river stopped the development settlement of medieval origin, the Baroque town spread towards the east after Turkish rule, where a new town sprang up. The poor remained in the medieval settlement. The village of Hollókő at the foot of a hill is on the World Heritage List. Its tourism has multiplied in the past twenty years. This fact is largely due to the careful and good renovation of protected monuments. Appointing protected areas was not determined by regional viewpoints, but when defining new areas we would like all the characteristic settlements of the country to be represented. Minorities living in Hungary also have their folk houses. Twelve German and more than ten Slovak villages have furnished folk houses and we also have Serbian, Romanian and Ruthenian folk houses.