Horváth M. Ferenc (szerk.): Vác The heart of the Danube Bend. A historical guide for residents and globetrotters (Vác, 2009)
Tartalom
THE 19TH CENTURY - THE CENTURY OF GREAT CHANGES 157 Order of the fair in the Main Square, 1882 Friars, used as the upper-town parish church since 1796. Before that, between 1785-1796 it used to be a Piarist Monastery, between 1796-1806 a military lodging house, while in 1806 the chapter regains it as their property. From the 1880s it is the home of retired priests (Deficientia), then the tenement house of the pension fund of the church. This is when its facade is "modernized" and re-built in eclectic style, which happens to nearly all of the buildings in the Main Square. The Savings Bank of Vác established in 1867 (number 17) as well as most of the tradesmen's houses are all built or re-built in the eclectic style at the turn of the century, and it is only the ecclesiastic buildings and the Town Flail that preserve their Baroque or Zopf fagade. Part of the Town Flail facing the courtyard is extended in 1893 and new stables are built. The new general assembly hall will only be completed in the next century, in 1911. Opposite the Town Flail in the former bishop's palace, the National Institution of the Deaf and Mute is opened in 1802 on the initiative of András Cházár (1745-1816). A hundred years later the first national institute of the sort is extended with an independent building looking onto Eötvös Street for the training of teachers for handicapped children. In the courtyard we can see the statues of András Cházár and Sándor Borbély (1866-1932), who becomes the headmaster of the institute in 1899. At the northern end of the Main Square where Köztársaság Road is continued (number 19) is the Arany Szarvas ("Golden Stag") Restaurant, a scene for acting and performance in Vác in the Reform Age. The building opposite (number 26) is the house of the Hajnik family where Pál Hajnik, MP for Vác in 1848 and 1861 lives. From 1841 on the artist Károly Lotz spends his childhood here, painting horses, clouds and the battle of Vác in July 1849. Eszterházy Street leading from the Main Square down to the ferry was inhabited by Hungarian tailors, who gave the street its former name. Migazzi Bridge at the end of the street was built by Bishop Kristóf Migazzi in 1764 so that we can get across the deep ditch carrying off rainfall and sewage from the town without getting wet. However, we should hurry up if we want to see the bridge because in 1889-1900 a drain-pipe is laid into the ditch running along the middle of the road, and it is covered, therefore the bridge is not needed any more and gets pulled down.The famous corner building in the street, the chief constable's office, is built around 1909 in the Vienna Secession style (today a home for the elderly). The Orthodox Christian Church, commonly called Greek Church (today an exhibition place of the museum) stands in Jewish, Raci and Greek Street (today Lajos Katona Street), is attended by a decreasing number of people because the members of the Raci/Serbian community are becoming Hungarianized or emigrating. One of the oldest streets of the town, Széchenyi Street, which also opens from the Main Square, has its heyday in the 19th century: with the start of the railway it becomes one of the busiest streets of Vác. Nevertheless, there are only a few significant Building of the Deaf and Mute Institution in Eötvös Street
