A Nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum évkönyve 50. (Nyíregyháza, 2008)

Néprajz - Dám László: Széljegyzetek Kiss Lajos: a Rétköz népi építkezése c. tanulmányához

Notes on Lajos Kiss' study „Folk architecture of the Rétköz region" Lajos Kiss was the director of the Jósa András Museum in Nyíregyháza between 1925-1948. Manuscript of his study published here was preserved in the Town Archive of Hódmezővásárhely. We are publishing this study now for the following reasons: 1. Rétköz belongs to those regions of the Great Hungarian Plain, the folk architecture of which is still hardly known to ethnographic research. Actually, this study is the only one that ever introduced this topic. 2. The author collected the material of the study in the 1920s, so he was able to record a number of cultural phenomena characterising the region already in the 19

th century and forgotten even by peasants by the second half of the 20

th century. Until the last third of the 19

lh century, Rétköz was the flood area of the Tisza, where villages were situated on the islands of the land temporarily or permanently covered by water, or directly at the edge of the marsh. Several elements of the archaic culture preserved by geographical environment could be still observed even in the time of Lajos Kiss research, after the regulation of river and drainage works. The study deals with the structure of the settlements, the arrangement of lots, buildings, introduces building materials, techniques and structures, different variants of ground plans of dwelling houses, heating devices and means of smoke abatement. A special attention was devoted to characteristic features of the noblemen's mansion architecture. In my supplementary study, Lajos Kiss work is evaluated from the point of view of modern research results. László DÁM Jósa András Museum Nyíregyháza H^I401 Pf. 57. dam@jam.nyirbone.hu