Fraternity-Testvériség, 2002 (80. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)

2002-01-01 / 1. szám

Page 14

TESTVÉRISÉG

The Hungarian Open Air Museum - Falu Múzeum (Skanzen) Hungary’s Rural Heritage

by

Kathy A. Megyeri

On my last visit to Hungary, I discovered a jewel - the Hungarian Open Air Museum outside Szentendre. Open from April 1 to November 11 since 1967, its purpose is to illustrate the extent to which peasant culture has impacted Hungary’s customs and traditions. The exhibitions are arranged according to regions of Hungary, and they portray life from the end of the 18th century to the first third of the 20th century. One should allow a full day of touring if he plans to see every exhibit. Festivals are celebrated

The Folkart of Veszprém.

throughout the season, and how lucky my husband and I were to visit the Hungarian Paprika Day was featured last September that highlighted the Great Hungarian Plain region on a typical farm of Sükösd. Since Hungarian Paprika is the staple spice of Hungary, it was especially important to me that the Hungarian Agricultural Museum demonstrated the different types of paprika, ways to properly store it, special recipes, and gave me samples to bring home. Other scheduled events are St. Stephen’s Day, Hunter’s Day, a wine festival, the day of the Hun, St. Florian’s Day, the day of hemp and flax, and St. Martin’s Day which closes the season.

In one of the small villages which represents the up- per-Tisza region, one sees an 18th century Protestant church with a belfry and a horse-mill that stand in the center of the spindle-shaped, one street settlement. One would think he is part of medieval Erdőhat in Northeastern Hungary as he strolls through this small burg.

Another village represents a market town in the Great Hungarian Plain. It houses a functioning inn created to serve the public with food and lodging and is an exact replica of an 18th century inn from Jászárokszállás. Next to the inn is a house that originally came from Sükösd of the Sárköz region near Kalocsa. Another house built in 1835 comes

from Hajdúbagos. Set back from the street is a blue-dye house transported from Nagykőrös. Behind it is a tannery from Baja, built in the 19th century, where rawhides were processed with tanning agents garnered from plants. The last house in the row is a bakery from Izsák that sells sweet and salted breads and milk-loaves baked in its own ovens. The inhabitants of the market towns favored these items in the forties, but they are hard to find in modem bakeries. In the middle of this market town stands the distinctive windmill of Dusnok with its fully operating arms; it was originally built in 1888.

Nearby is a farm reconstructed on the basis of surveys conducted in Nagykunság. There, visitors can see Hungarian breeds of domestic animals, grey cattle, racka sheep, goats, donkeys, mangalica pigs, and poultry.

In the next little village called the New Region, one feels as though he is entering the Bakony, Balaton-Uplands area, Hungary’s largest region with stone architecture. Its four dwellings reveal a way of life and the interior design of the different social strata with varying financial standing from the mid 19th century to 1940. Here one views sacred monuments that belonged mainly to the Roman Catholics and communal buildings such as a well, a washhouse, a water mill and a fire-station that surround the Catholic church and its cemetery in the center of the village.

The sleeping quarters.

In the town that represents western Transdanubia, one looks at the traditional architecture of south-western Hungary, an area rich in wood. The pattern of the settlement is called a “szer”, which is typically a cluster of five to ten buildings. The interiors of the houses represent peasant homes from 1830 to 1930; for example, a school with the teacher’s quarters dates from the 19th century. The