Varga László - Lugosi András (szerk.): URBS. Magyar Várostörténeti Évkönyv XIV. - URBS 14. (Budapest, 2020)
Recenziók
Abstracts 315 Éva Judit Bodovics Who has got the (public) place here? The use of the bed of brooks as public places in Miskolc at the end of the 19 th century The study aims to show the use of a special type of pubic place, the river/brook through the example of Miskolc. The two brooks, Szinva and Pece cross the town, had always had a decisive role in the lives of the people of Miskolc. The two brooks differ from each other, as Szinva has constant watercourse, whereas Pece has intermittent water flow. On the use of both the full and the empty brook beds interesting data can be retrieved from the documents of the urban authorities. The use of river beds raises several questions in the given period, not only because due to the lack of piped water supply and sewerage almost all the town dwellers had connections to either brook, but also because the urban authorities regarded the brook beds as public places, (though not the banks), the urban regulations do not mention it. The lack of clarification on the rights and obligations resulted conflicts between the public and the authorities and among the water users. The research wanted to demonstrate the special form of a public place, like the bed of a river or a brook, which is, though it is a publicly owned place, but the individuals are not allowed to enter, unless the bed is empty, how difficult is to interpret the issue from the point of view of the city dwellers and of the authorities. The examples show that the inhabitants believed that the bed of the brook (legally) is either irrelevant, as water and access to water are really important or it is a ‘no man’s land’, especially a brook bed without water, which can be used by anybody anytime. As opposed to that view the authorities considered it similarly to squares, roads, parks, that they let the public use it, but the authorities have the right to regulate its use and control over it. The definite control can be seen especially after the 1878 flood, when for the purposes of public safety acts and measures were introduced and the authorities checked more and more often that these acts were being strictly complied with. Balázs Beregszászi The formation and the sights of the Városkapu Square in Magyaróvár The name Városkapu Square refers to its function ‘town gate’, it was the lower gate of the town, a checkpoint for entering or leaving the town over the Lajta Bridge. The old high road leading from Buda to Vienna crosses the western part of the square near the River Lajta, which surrounds the town. It was the Inner Pozsonyi Road, that functioned as an outer bypass road of the town. The oldest part of the square is the cemetery which
