Lukács László (szerk.): Märkte und Warenaustausch im Pannonischen Raum - István Király Múzeum közelményei. A. sorozat 28. (Székesfehérvár, 1988)

Imre Dankó: The Ethnocultural Role of the Transdanubian Fairs

fairs of Párkány (Sturovo) Komárom (Komárno) and Pozsony (Bratislava) belong here as well. Other notable marketplaces of this zone include the fairs of Győr and Mosonmagyaróvár. The character of the exchange of goods in this region has been determined by the Danube and the overland highway running parallel to the river. The main function of these fairs is, on the one hand, buying up and gathering, and, on the other, conveying food-products, expecially corn, flour, animals and poultry. At the same time, they supply and distribute materials and tools, mainly for the inhabitants and craftsmen of their own region but also for those of their large spheres of attraction. The fairs of this zone have exerted the greatest influence not only upon the other Transdanubian fairs but also upon all the fairs of the country and even upon a number of others in Central Europe. Here, at these fairs, strong Austrian, Moravian, Czech, Slovak, and more distant German interethnic relations have developed. Furthermore, these fairs ensured important trading relations between Budapest and Vienna.

Finally, the fifth group of Transdanubian fairs might be called the internal fairs. The inner part of Transdanubia is divided by Lake Balaton into two distinct areas having different geographical and production characteristics. The southern part includes the farming and animal-keeping area of Somogy with Kaposvár as its most important market-place. The northern part, however, includes the Balaton-uplands dominated by mining and handicraft trade. The most notable market-place here is Veszprém. Székesfehérvár has become one of the most significant market-places of Transdanubia and the whole country because it is situated at the point of contact of threê Transdanubian fair

zones being, at the same time, a geographically important place. It was

established in the centre of the region called Mezőföld, and later it had an important role in central administration, even for centuries after it had ceased to be the capital of Hungary. The fairs of Székesfehérvár have been maintained .by both traditional agriculturs(corn, vegetables, fruits, cattle, pigs, and poultry) and handicraft and industry (leather, textile, clothing industry, carpentry, ceramics, smithcraft, and metallurgy). The fairs of Székesfehérvár supplied not only the minor market-piacos of the town and its sphere of attraction but also the eastern and nothern zones as well as both parts of the internal fair zone of Transdanubia.(6)

To sum up, it must be emphasized that on the basis of their geographical location, their forming of clearly distinguishable production areas, and of their social stratification depending on the status of their town or borough, the Transdanubian fairs can be divided into five distinct but at the same time closely interrelated zones. An in-depth analysis of the individual fairs is not given here. What is emphasized is that the majority of the Transdanubian fairs with their numerous functions constituted a strong connection with the culture of the Pannonian region, an ethnocultural area larger than Transdanubia as geographically defined.

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