Magyar News, 1998. szeptember-1999. augusztus (9. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1999-07-01 / 11-12. szám

“Sleep-car and Bar” 19 th Century whole of Paris; between 1600 and 1610 the new type of vehicle began to be more fre­quently seen in the streets of the French capital. In Spain, too, the first carriage or "coach" appeared only between 1540 and 1550. The Spanish historian Avila y Zuniga, in his Commentaries (1547) remarked that "Charles V slept in his cov­ered vehicle, called a kocsi in Hungary, whence not only the name, but the inven­tion itself derives." All through the sixteenth and even at the beginning of the seventeenth centuries the main method of travel in Western Europe was the slow, heavy and jolting wagon, but in Hungary this "coach" was the principal vehicle by the end of tire fif­teenth century. A generation after the death of Matthias, travelling by carriage had became so fashionable with the gentry that, for the sake of comfort many of them went on military expeditions by coach instead of on horseback or on foot. The German humanist and Viennese professor, Johannes Cuspicianus, who was sent to Hungary as an envoy on twenty-four occa­sions, recorded in 1515 that many of the Hungarian nobles travelled in fast wagons the Hungarian appellation of which was "kocsi". Such vehicles could cover a dis­tance of a hundred thousand paces a day. As the use of the carriage spread, traffic on the highways quickened. Tommaso Dainero, who came to Buda as tire envoy of tire Duke of Ferrara in 1501, found trav­elling by carriage a swift means of trans­port. He was interested in it, and reported that the 130 Italian miles (280 kilometres) between Buda and Vienna could be cov­ered by a vehicle with four seats called a "kocsi" (coecia) within a day and a night. "The vehicle," he said, "was drawn by three horses and was driven by a 'coach­man'. The horses are changed once in sum­mer and twice in winter." We also have a contemporary picture of the carriage of the sixteenth century, which—in view of the conditions then pre­vailing—was considered an extremely fast and comfortable means of transport. A sketch-book of the Augsburg painter, Jeremias Schemel, dating from the middle of the sixteenth century, contains a draw­ing with the title "Ein Ungarische Gutsche". The drawing shows three rear­ing horses, harnessed abreast. On the right side of the carriage a shaft is fixed with a whipple tree to tire axle of tire rear wheels for the third horse. The body is wicker­work, sloping back towards the top. proba­bly in order to make it easy to cover it with a tarpaulin in case of need. The back seat accommodates two persons, and there is place for a third on tire smaller opposite seat behind the coachman. A loose hanging bag of fleecy lambskin filled with down was part of the coach furniture. When the traveller wanted to sleep he pulled the bag round his shoulders and neck, to prevent his head banging against the side of the carriage. Otherwise he used it as a cushion to support Iris back and make the seat more comfortable. According to tire contemporary draw­­ing and contemporary descriptions, this was the type of vehicle King Matthias used for tire first nrail-coach sendee in tire coun­try. He had staging posts for feeding tire horses set up on tire Buda-Vienna road and started a regular coach sendee between tire two capitals. The service was used by the king himself as well as by the foreign envoys to the court, who often travelled along this route. The staging posts for feeding the horses were situated five or six miles apart* and the horses were changed at Gyor. In addition to tire Buda-Vienna mail-coach service, Matthias established similar services on the other principal roads in the country, but these ceased to function after the king's death. The Viennese mail was still in existence in 1518 when Herberstein travelled in Hungary, for it was he who described die journey by the mail in dre greatest detail. He went from Buda to Vienna in a carriage drawn by three horses harnessed abreast. The carriage could take four passengers, including the coaclimaa They ran day and night, feeding the horses every five or six miles, and changing them in Gyor, which makes it clear that the system was unchanged a quarter of a century after Matthias's death. Like Dainero in 1501, Herberstein took a day and a night to reach Vienna and considered dris a pleasant man­ner of travelling, particularly as he could carry food, clothes and even bedding with him. This, in fact is where we first meet the ancestor of the sleeper. This article is printed with the permis­sion of the CORVINA Publishing Co. in Budapest. '\ Available for cultural and social events. Hall, kitchen, bar, stage and ample parking Hungarian Community Club 147 Ward Street, Wallingford, CT P.O.Box 1816; Tel: 203-639-0511 Contact Kati Kovács V_________________________✓ Experienced in all phases of TAX and ACCOUNTING Allan Chomortany, CPA FAIRFIELD LOCATION Phone: (203)335-1935 PR/A/T/A7G & GRAPHICS 203/377-6571 724 Honeyspot Rd, Stratford, CT Exit 31-CT Tpke. Page 7

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