Cseri Miklós, Füzes Endre (szerk.): Ház és ember, A Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum évkönyve 8. (Szentendre, Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, 1992)

ZENTAI TÜNDE: A drávaszögi és Eszék környéki magyar parasztházak a 18-19. században

PEASANT HOUSES OF DRAVASZOG AND SLAVONIA IN THE 18TH-19TH CENTURIES The study deals with folk architecture in a sub-region of Southern Transdanubia, i.e.. Drávaszög in Baranya County, and the Hungarian villages surrounding the neighboring town of Eszék belonging to Slavonia. Drávaszög lies in the Dráva Plain situated in the corner formed by the rivers Danube and Dráva. It is a fertile area of good transportation potentials whose approximate borderlines can be drawn by connecting the town of Siklós to Mohács then Kopács. Since the Middle Ages Drávaszög has been one of the most developed sub-regions of Transdanubia, even though it suffered great damages during the Turkish occupation of Hungary (1526-1686) when the military road from Eszék to Buda led right through it. Its southern part, called Belső-Drávaszög, was annexed to Yugoslavia by the Trianon Peace Treaty in 1920. Its Protestant inhabitants stayed Hungarian, and continued tilling their lands as private farmers adapting to a country slowly approaching industrialization. As they were not affected by the compulsory collectivization that went on in Hungary after the Second World War their culture and way of life changed less, the villages have been able to retain more of their traditional appearance. During the Turkish occupation a large part of the land between the rivers Dráva and Száva became depopulated. Of the villages inhabited by Hungarians four survived in the environs of Eszék: Haraszti, Kórógy, Szentlászló and Rétfalu (the last one has been annexed to Eszék since then). The isolation and depressed financial circumstances of these villages preserved the old ways of living up to the recent past. They could maintain cultural contacts with great difficulty in their mother tongue with only neighboring villages of the Drávaszög, as they were surrounded with Yugoslavian villages and the almost fully Yugoslav Eszék. The effect of this environment is perceivable in some elements of the architecture of this "Hungarian island"

. As a result, although there are many similarities, the development of houses differs in the villages of the Drávaszög and neighboring Slavonia. The main differences can be summed up as under: - As early as the 18th century, timber architecture was on a steady decline in the Drávaszög. By 1795 houses of earthen walls had been predominant. In Slavonia timber architecture flourished until the second half of the 19th century. - The wall-plate (carrying the trussing) is called váró in the Drávaszög and koszorú in Slavonia. The Slavonian house resting on ground sills differs from its counterpart in the Drávaszög, with the former having high trussing and a timber-framed gable betraying German influences. - The presence of open chimneys is significant in the Drávaszög in the 18th century. In Slavonia kitchens with no ceiling and with a fireplace in the middle were most likely in existence in the middle of the 19th century. - In Slavonian houses a large room of unique dimensions can be found with a row of sleeping chambers attached. The porch with wooden arcades is also characteristic of this region. Trying to determine the place of these dwelling houses in Hungarian folk architecture, we can say of the Drávaszög house that by its type of ground plan, single entrance, and Alföldi ovens (commonly associated with the Alföld, the Great Hungarian Plain), it is closely connected to the region where the type of house characteristic of this Plain is dominant. The Slavonian house preserves more traditional forms. The indigenous architecture of this area shows a mixture of alföldi (of the Great Hungarian Plain) and Yugoslavian elements. From the middle of the 19th century the former features have become increasingly dominant. What the author accomplished is the first comprehensive and concise study of the folk architecture of the Drávaszög and the "Hungarian island" in Slavonia. It covers almost three centuries, mainly as the result of on-the-spot research conducted by her in 1988 and in the archives. Special importance is lent to the study by the civil war that started in 1991 and is still going on in what had been called Yugoslavia before. The Hungarian villages in Yugoslavian Baranya and around Eszék are suffering irreparable demages. Many streets have been devastated and their views exist only in photographs.