Cseri Miklós, Füzes Endre (szerk.): Ház és ember, A Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum évkönyve 15. (Tanulmányok Füzes Endre 70. születésnapja alkalmából. Szentendre, Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, 2002)

PALÁDI-KOVÁCS ATTILA: Munkásház és lakás (1870-1920)

WORKERS HOUSES AND QUARTERS (1870-1920) The architecture of fanner houses, of croft buildings, mainly the architecture of the population of villages and market towns are generally considered as subjects of the ethnographic research in Hungary. Besides them, attention is paid to industrial objects (mills, workshops), sacral relics (bell-fry, church, cemetery) as well as shops and inns belonging to the rural environment. They enjoy protection in situ and are placed in open-air museums. Ethnographic research and protection of historic buildings have not taken notice so far of the colonies, houses and interiors of industry workers. The author mentions some examples as evidence that the question of workers houses and quarters became subject of research in several European countries and the objects are relocated in open-air museums (Wales, Holland). Gold, silver, copper, iron and salt mining have medieval traditions in Hungary. The mining history is well documented from the 13

th century. Architectural relics from the feudal period are the houses of the mining towns in Upper Hungary and Transylvania and the stone and earthen huts (fig. 1) built next to the entrance of the mines were still existing at the beginning of the 20

th century. The mineworkers rested, cooked, ate, slept and dried their cloth near the hearth in the huts on workdays. Industry societies were founded in Hungary in the forties of the 19

th century and coal mining and manufacturing industry began to develop. The new mines and iron factories (locomotive, wagon, ship, glass, brick, cement factories) employed settler workers. In the seventies, the societies started to build barracks, quarters, worker colonies and worker houses near the factories. Before that, the settler mineworkers used to build themselves their huts partly dug into the ground. We have an example from 1863 near Ózd (Borsod county) (fig. 2). Mineworkers used to live in quarters dug in the hillside, in loess or tuff in different regions in Hungary in the 19

th century . Between 1870 and 1910 the crowded barracks were constructed of wood, later of bricks. The dwellers merely had a place to sleep and where they could keep their chest. 100 workers lodged in a room of a barrack. The first houses and colonies were built for families in the seventies. The society had construct 35 individual family houses constructed near the iron factory in Ózd between 1870-73. All had the same arrangement and size on 52,15 m

2 surface (fig. 3). All had a summer kitchen, a shed for wood, a cellar, a pigsty and hen-pen as well as a privy in the yard. Later, long-houses with many quarters were built The size of a quarter didn't exceed 35—40 m

2 (fig. 4). Besides the typical design and use of space, the use of certain building materials was characteristic for these houses: slag bricks, roofing felt, later comigated iron roofs.) Many of the workers houses still exist today and several old colonies can be studied in Hungary (fig. 5). Therefore, it is important to survey and to document them. Early buildings should be reconstructed, preserved in situ or relocated in open-air museums.