Horváth M. Ferenc (szerk.): Vác The heart of the Danube Bend. A historical guide for residents and globetrotters (Vác, 2009)

Tartalom

RESETTLEMENT AND THE AGE OF THE GREAT CONSTRUCTIONS - THE 18TH CENTURY 121

Cricifix and gate carved of sand-stone of the Naszály Hill

and started to operate in the town in 1724, levied tax on this overland trade. In 1784 King Joseph II closed down this office.

The Bishopric of Vác held the staple right of medieval origins, but during the Ottoman era it had not had the chance to exercise it. In 1700 Emperor Leopold I restituted customs privilege, which meant that anyone passing through the town carrying goods had to pay a road toll. Since customs were leased by the town from the bishopric, Vác profited from it as well.

There were four annual fairs in Vác: on Palm Sunday (the Sunday right before Easter) cereals were on sale; on the day of the Festival of the Visitation of Our Lady (2 July) mainly wool and onions; at the autumn fair on Gál's Day (16 October) cattle were marketed, but household equipment and clothes were also sold, while the winter fair on St Thomas's Day (21 December) was called tobacco fair. The bishop-landlord had the right to hold fairs, but the town leased it from him by a manorial contract that was renewed every three years.

We can imagine these bustling fairs in their former locations. The largest one was the empty space north of the Red House where the cattle went on sale; the other one was the Main Square where grain crops and

all kinds of hand-made articles were sold, while in Szentháromság Square there was the fish market. On the Danube bank timber merchants traded.

In 1700 the right to hold weekly markets reverted to the landlord, and again it was leased by the town. First they were held on Sundays, from 1715 onwards on Mondays, while after 1761 - by Maria Theresa's royal letters patent-twice a week, every Monday and Thursday. On these two days the Main Square, or - as it was called at that time the Market Square - was noisy with hundreds of stall keepers and customers.

One of the privileges of the town was that it was allowed to lease some other minor royal beneficial interests from the landlord. Thus it rented and then sub-leased the ferry-crossing, the tax levied on the pavement and the watermill poles, the milling dues and wine, beer and brandy retail in the pubs, as well as selling meat. Most of the town pubs have not survived, but their names have: wine and beer were retailed in the Arany Szarvas ("Golden Stag") Inn (today's Pannonia building), in Fekete Sas ("Black Eagle"), in Zöldfa ("Green Tree"), in Kúria ("Curia", it is still standing in the Main Square), in Arany Hordó ("Golden Barrel"), and in the beer house of the chapter (in Kossuth Square) and the bishopric (next to the open-air bath).

The one-time Arany Szarvas ("Golden Stag") Inn