Horváth M. Ferenc (szerk.): Vác The heart of the Danube Bend. A historical guide for residents and globetrotters (Vác, 2009)
Tartalom
78 VÁC'S REMAINS FROM THE LATE MIDDLE AGES (1 301 -1 526) THE INHABITANTS OFTHETOWN The Germans living in Vác were regarded as guests, hospes in Latin. More precisely, they were guests under the dominion of the church. These guests had a social status ranging from royal free citizens to serfs.The 15th century was the age of legal unification. In this new view the hospes were regarded as a transitional stratum, which had no place in the new society. According to the late medieval social classification, the citizens of Vác were inevitably considered to be peasants (serfs), but it did not mean the worsening of their circumstances. They served the same landlord as before, their former rights were not curtailed, and ordinary usage called the inhabitants of market-towns citizens as well. The majority of town dwellers lived on agriculture. Besides tillage and husbandry, viticulture was significant. During the Middle Ages the side of Naszály was covered with vineyards, the cellars found underthe houses in Vác were mainly used for wine-storage. There was a road leading to each vineyard with a cleared pressing place. Here the horses could be unharnessed from the cart, the grapes trodden and pressed, and then the must was carried home. In Hungary the word cellar has two meanings: one for the room in the basement of a house, and the other for the buildings in vineyards used for making and storing wine. They are small houses, often with a real cellar underneath. Only in some parts of medieval Hungary were there cellars in the vineyards, these became widespread only in modern times. The hills of Buda with vineyards on them did not have any cellars in the Middle Ages, while there are some scattered but vague traces of them on the Vác side of the Danube. It is certain that today's Nagymaros had some underground cellars as early as the beginning of the 17th century. In medieval towns trade was carried on at the markets and the annual markets called throngs by their contemporaries. As to the dates of the annual markets, we have sources only from the Ottoman period, but they might have changed little from the late Middle Ages. According to these sources, the markets were held on Matthew's Day (24 February), Gál's Day (16 October) and Thomas's Day (21 December), somewhere outside the walls of the town. Weekly markets were held twice a week, on Monday and on Friday, probably separately for the Hungarian and the German town. Our sources mention trades such as shoemaker, tailor, tanner, turner, miller, mill-builder, butcher, stonecutter, goldsmith, but further researches reveal some more, for instance there must have been a blacksmith in the town as well. The German population of the town had close contacts with the Germans in Buda, Verőce, Visegrád and mining towns. However, the names found in the sources do not always reveal the nationality of their bearers. In 1468 we can find a Gergely Bornemissza, whose name does sound Hungarian, in addition he was a judge, still he was a citizen of the German town. After a while ethnic distinction lost its importance for the population of the two towns; what really mattered was the legal difference between their status. Hungarians could have lived in the German town and vice versa.The Germans in Vác had a good command of languages and good contacts in Buda, which made it possible for some of them to try their fortune abroad. Wolfgang Eisen, a well-to-do merchant and town councillor of Nuremberg was born in Vác, and he maintained his business relationships in Hungary even after settling in Germany. His portrait was painted Renaissance platter (PMMI—TIM 92.7.23) Renaissance jug (PMMI—TIM 53.55.4)
