Horváth M. Ferenc (szerk.): Vác The heart of the Danube Bend. A historical guide for residents and globetrotters (Vác, 2009)
Tartalom
THE 19TH CENTURY - THE CENTURY OF GREAT CHANGES 159 ' £1..*!CM i m 8$s K OB RAK •roné< / ■ Letterhead paper of the Kobrák Shoe Factory bank because the old building is extended with a U-shaped workshop. Next to the former arms depot near the Stone Gate is the State Detention House, the first institute of its kind in Hungary opened in 1870 where people who have committed "un-criminal" crimes such as duels and political offences are kept. If we are lucky we can meet the writer Ferenc Herczeg, who is detained here and walks "home" a little bit tipsy in the evening; Leo Frankel, member of the Paris Commune, and Ödön Iványi, literary man. On both sides of the Main Road of Kisvác (today Dózsa György Road) there are single-storey houses with the date of their construction on the keystone of their stone gates. The steeple of the Baroque Calvinist Church has been there since 1794, and the vicarage with a Classicist fagade and Tuscan columns is completed in 1843. We can visit the Fehér Ló (“White Horse") Restaurant by the road to have a glass of wine ofVác. If we still have time and feel like having a ride, it is worth travelling as far as Buki Island, which is one of the most popular destinations of the townsfolk. We can go angling in the lake formed of a backwater of the Danube, or have a drink in Buki Tavern. From here we can return to the town crossing the Market Place. The huge area, the former pasture of the bishopric manor, stretches from the Stone Bridge to Széchenyi Street with the Red House in its centre. IgnácTragor describes very vividly what it looks like: “The makeshift tents and wooden stalls form streets, with crowds of people walking up and down... Wherever you turn there is something interesting to see: comedy, roundabout, miraculous creatures, flock of animals, groups of people shooting, singing the latest songs and selling things." Having checked the supply, remember you should never go back home from a market empty-handed. At the end of the 19th century the town that had been asleep for so long got down to modernization, in the course of which the appearance of the town was improved. Roads were paved, the drainpipes were covered, and trees were planted. In the early 1890s the building of the sewerage-system started in order to improve the conditions of public health in the town. They also tried to sort out the problem of housing shortage by building a new district, Deákvár. The 19th century saw the winding up of the several-century-old feudal system, when our town strove to take - even if a bit late - the chances offered by the "palmy days of peace" and keep up in a tough competition. MSfa----*- Buna folyam. Plan of the Prison, 1870s
