Kaján Imre (szerk.): Zalai Múzeum 23. (Zalaegerszeg, 2017)
Berki Márton–Berki Szilárd: Egy „csinált város” téglái – Téglagyártás Zalaegerszegen
254 Berki Márton - Berki Szilárd Bricks of an artificial town - Brick production in Zalaegerszeg Based on various accounts of local history and industrial history, as well as on maps and archival sources, this paper provides a comprehensive overview of the history of brick production in Zalaegerszeg, with a particular emphasis placed on stamped bricks produced and found in the county seat to date. Although ecclesiastical and demesnial brickyards already existed here throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, brick buildings only started to appear in the area’s vernacular architecture from the mid-18th century onwards (however, they remained rather marginal till the mid-19th century). The map sheets of the Second Military Survey (1806-1869) showed only two brickyards in the close vicinity of the town (in Gálafej- major and in Ebergény), whereas the Erdődy family’s demesnial brickyard of Botfa and the (presumably) ecclesiastical brickyard of Bozsok were not shown on the map (even though stamped bricks have been made in both of them). The year 1826 marked a major turning point in local brick production; after two consecutive disastrous fires, the town was granted the right by the Bishop of Szombathely to produce its own bricks in Alsóerdő. Subsequently, the Egerszeg Commonage Brickyard turned out to be the prime site of brick production for nearly half a century. In response to the growing demand for construction material, however, local brick production was considerably expanded from the late-19,h century. As a result, the map sheets of the Third Military Survey (1869-1887) showed four brickworks; besides the ones in Gálafej-major and Botfa, the other two production sites, Alsóerdő and Ola had significantly larger capacity and therefore, were of far greater importance. The Commonage Brickyard in Alsóerdő was modernised by Károly Kovács in 1889, then managed by a company called Erzsébet Brickworks from the early-1920s till 1943, before being nationalised in 1949. In Ola, two brickworks were located; the older one was first owned by József Braunstein from the 1890s, then by Mór Brüll (and Béla Sarkadi) from 1906, and was eventually managed by István Kamarás after 1945 (and was also nationalised in 1949), while the other (newer) one was first owned by Ferenc Kovács (the legal successor of József Billisics) from the early-20th century, followed by the Eitner family from the 1930s till the end of WWII, after which production was stopped in this facility. In addition to the Alsóerdő and the Ola production sites, another brickworks was founded by Ferenc Grünbaum near the town’s main train station in the early-20lh century, nonetheless, it also ceased to operate by the end of WWII. Albeit brick production continued in Zalaegerszeg after that, during the state socialist period as well, those unmarked bricks turned out to be the building blocks of an ‘artificial town’. Translated by Márton Berki
