Kovács Zsuzsa: Göcsej Village Museum. Exhibition Guide (Zalaegerszeg, 2008)

GÖCSEJ VILLAGE MUSEUM upper one covers the one below; thus the roof has an even surface. These thatched roofs lasted for 20-25 years - with some repairing sometimes - but after this time the roof needed to be re-thatched. 23. BELFRY FROM CSÖDE This very simple type of belfry is from Csöde. It stands on one support that ends in a fork where the bell is, and it has a small upper part with wooden shingles. The evolution toward the skirted belfry, which is a bit more complicated, is the so-called double belfry which stands on a wooden base, and is supported with several legs. 24. A WOODEN CHURCH FROM ZALACSÉB One of the newest sacred buildings of the museum is this wooden church, set up in 2003. Such logwalled, thatched churches cannot now be seen either in Göcsej or in the surroundings, however, according to previous accounts, wooden chapels were commonplace in the small villages in the past centuries. Flóris Römer, a Benedictine monk and teacher, wrote about one of the last wooden churches, which was in Zalacséb, and also produced a survey of it, so this church here in the museum could be built with reference to his description. In the 18th century, in the historical Zala county, having its borders as far as the uplands of Lake Balaton now belonging to Veszprém county, there were 35 wooden or wattle churches, 24 out of them were built of wood entirely. Many churches were ruined by fire and the others were pulled down and the brick-churches, which stand now in the villages, were built in their place. Flóris Römer in 1860, in his report about the Zalacséb church, writes sadly that these wooden buildings, which used to be so characteristic of the Western Trans-Danubian region's folk architecture, and even then could hardly be found there any longer.