Gunda Béla et al. (szerk.): Ideen, Objekte und Lebensformen. Gedenkschrift für Zsigmond Bátky - István Király Múzeum közelményei. A. sorozat 29. (Székesfehérvár, 1989)
Ján Botík: Economic Functions of the Peasant Dwelling in Hont
Compared to the dwelling of small families in shown both in their dispositional and functional adjustment of the dwelling part of house and in its economic part. First, there was a greater number of chambers. Apart from the chamber near the anteroom and corn pit or corn loft which are also common in the houses of individual families, there is also a so-called hábová komora (dress chamber) for storing boxes with dresses, textiles and other personal belongings of married women living in a large family as well as a so-called komora na zivnost' (food chamber) where various foods were kept, e.g. pork and mutton, lard, liptauer cheese, jam, sour cabbage, preserved fruit, legumes, some kinds of vegetables and fruit, etc. The need for more chambers was caused by the spreading structure of extended families as well as by the fact that such families were usually the owners of a large farming estate. The estates of less prosperous farmers usually contained only one stable, staja. It was most often placed under a common roof with the house behind the chamber. If cattle were reared as well as horses, they were kept in a separate compartment called stánia, with the different types separated from each other by a pole, strajpang (Sebechleby region) or bastrzaj (Suchán). On more prosperous farms, apart from the staja for cattle, another stable for horses could be found, called kohic, konica. For throwing down hay from the roof of the cowshed, there was a place made of boards, approx, 1X1 m square, called sennik (hay-loft) (Sebechleby), senihec (Malá Calomija), zúcin, zácirtok (Král’ovce) or cárok (Dacov Lom). It was placed inside the cowshed or near the entrance next to the wall. Sheep were only exceptionally kept together with other types of cattle. There was a special room, the ovcienec or salas (sheepfold), for this purpose. It was placed under a common roof with the house at the end behind the cowshed or sometimes opposite the cowshed as a separate unit or as a component part of other service buildings. The place for sheep wintering was often separated off within the barn, where a part called plevinca was often used for this purpose. Within the yard a separate unit was represented by the svinskie chlievi (pigsties). They usually had a separate place for the sow, and for young adult animals as well as for fattened pigs, that was called krmnik. There was sometimes a fenced place, rajcul'a, in front of the pigsties. The henhouse, kurin, was usually placed over the pigsties, but could also stand as a separate unit in their vicinity. There was usually a hen-house called kuraci chlievik or a duck-house called chlievik pre kacice, a house for rabbits and a pigeon-Fig. 2.: Ground plan and functional solution of the barn. a. Device, b. Senohrad, c. Horny Badin, d. Sebechleby, e. Jablonovce. I. threshing floor, II. stadia (space for storing the non-threshed corn, or straw), III. chamber for storing grain, IV. záhrnka (space for scraping away corn at manual threshing and cleaning of corn), V. room for chaffs — plevník, VI. ovcin — sheepfold, VII. shed for storing the farming tools, transportation means, fuel, etc. 163
