Balázs György (szerk.): The abolition of serfdom and its impact on rural culture, Guide to the Exhibition Commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Revolution and War if Independence of 1848-49 (Budapest-Szentendre, Museum of Hungarian Agriculture-Hungarian Open-Air Museum, 1998.)

arily that of noblemen and peasants," wrote the historian Szabó, István. The first part of our exhibition introduces the last phase of this period in Hungarian history. One of the two dwelling houses reconstructed in the exhibition hall illustrates the life of a noble family with serfs from Transdanubia. The other one presents the lifestyle of a peasant family in serfdom. A feudal landlord and a serf with tenure side by side in a village of, let's say, Zala County. In the first decade of the nineteenth century there were about 100,000 noble families in Hungary. The rate of the nobility among the Hungarian population was nearly six per cent. However, according to the register of 1800 almost three quarters of them, about 70,000 families, had a yearly income below 500 forints. Many of them had less than 180 forints. the yearly income of a tenure. One of the major characteristics of the privileges of the nobility was the equality of noblemen, which ensured equal rights for aristocrats, the landed gentry, are both the landed and landless members of the lesser nobility. The members of the latter group often lived the life of cotters. It was only property and lifestyle that divided these categories. There was a great difference between landlords and members of the lesser nobility, with or without serfs working on their plots as ordinary peasants. The category of landed serf-holding noblemen differed from region to region. There were counties where noblemen with at least one serf, doing labour service with plough and two cotters, were considered members of the landed gentry, while in others only those with at least four serfs with tenures were considered noble. The lifestyle of these people 14 Horn with waxed engravings from 1824 '