Magyar News, 1996. szeptember-1997. augusztus (7. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1997-01-01 / 5. szám
BEßTlNG fi STßßlG H T Antaiffy The Hungarian neither sought nor found man-made roads in their new homeland. They rode on horseback through half Asia before they reached the Danube, but it was the attacking nomadic peoples in their rear, especially die attacks of the Pechenegs, rather than the lack of roads before them that was their main concern. In the western part of the newly occupied country, however, the Hungarians settling there probably came across the remains of the paved roads built by the Romans. These first great masters of road construction built excellent basalt roads in Pannónia, now the western region of Hungary, most of which were, however, destroyed in the stormy times of the Conquest. All that survived were only traces and the memory of the solid cambered roads, four to five meters wide, but these traces were sufficient for the men of succeeding ages to build their own primitive roads on their surface. The great Vienna-Buda road of the Romans followed the same line as one of the Vienna- Budapest roads of today. The Roman road between Aquincum and Eszek is still there today beneath the present international highway, and the Italian merchants travelling to Buda and Esztergom (the earlier royal seat) in the Middle Ages, followed the traces of the ancient Roman Szombathely-Gyor road. The work of the Roman engineers and road makers is not entirely destroyed today. In the Garden of Ruins at Szombathely we can follow for several hundred meters the road still intact, which once led from Rome to the Baltic Sea. Its large bluish-grey basalt cobbles resounded to the clatter of the war chariots and the legions and packmules of the merchants from Italy, who traded with the barbarians. A thousand years ago traces of such basalt-paved roads must have also existed in other parts of the country yet what remained of the Roman heritage was in far too ruinous a condition, one assumes, for the first Hungarian settlers to make use of them in the Carpathian basin. Like the many other peoples preceding them who had been destroyed and left no trace, the Magyar also had to beat out their own ways for long centuries. They usually made a bee-line straight for their objective, only abandoning the most direct route for short cuts, or more easily negotiable ways, or in order to avoid natural obstacles, such as mountains, trackless forests, rivers or swamps. The paths chosen by the various convoys only met at mountain passes or suitable fords, for the rest, the whole country was one open space where each group of travellers tried to find the well-worn routes that seemed the safest, and presented the least natural obstacles. It was on account of such natural obstacles, for instance, that in the Middle Ages the Hungarian part of one of the pilgrim routes to the Holy Land, the extremely busy stretch between Vienna and Belgrade did not run straight but in a semi-circular curve, in order to avoid the mountains and waters of the Transdanubian regions. This was the road the armies of the Second and Third Crusades took in 1147 and 1189, when they set out from Vienna to Belgrade via Gyor and Szekesfehervar. A second crusader route passed through Buda. Both these routes demonstrate that the vast Bakony forests in western Hungary, then still stretching to the river Drava, and the marshland extending far beyond the present area of Lake Balaton made a short straight road across the countiy impossible. On the other hand, the Buda ferry had handled heavy traffic from time immemorial, for it had always been the safest crossing place along the whole of the Hungarian Danube. The accumulation of cart tracks, wheel ruts and well worn paths in the neighborhood of such a junction had already begun to take on something of the character of a road. Elsewhere, however, the traveller sought his way the best he could, together with the wagons of the merchants, and the herds of cattle driven from one market to another, and the prince’s messengers galloping on their fine horses with messages and orders from their supreme masters, and delivering them to those receiving them by word of mouth. If their horses were exhausted on the way, they could force the first person they met to dismount or unharness their horse, requisitioning the saddle-horses of priests, stewards of estates or highranking dignitaries of the state, and riding the animals furiously until they collapsed. It became a standing grievance on the roads until King Ladislas I (1077-1095) passed a decree in 1093, prohibiting the requisitioning of any horse for more than three miles on the road; it also forbade the seizure of horses whose riders were on their way to churches or the courts of bishops or castellans, or the horses of priests or other ecclesiastics. This was the first law designed to guarantee the undisturbed travelling of persons of distinction. The court messengers were later replaced by official couriers who no longer transmitted the messages of kings, governors of countries and bishops by word of mouth, but carried letters in their wallets. They covered long distances, and it was the duty of villages on their route to provide them with a relay of horses, unless some noble had managed to obtain exemption for his villages from this burdensome obligation. As a result the couriers were unable to change horses wherever they pleased, but had to ride on until they reached a village where the regulation still held good. By the fourteenth century the number of such villages had decreased to such an extent that the king was obliged to set up regular staging-posts if he wanted his men to reach their destination speedily. From this time on the regular couriers— who usually lived along the main routes— had to be permanently ready for service, man and horse relieving each other until their final destination was reached. This institution of official couriers was in fact the first postal service in Hungary. To protect themselves against the inclemencies of the weather during the many days, or many weeks of journeying, the couriers wore special clothes. Painted miniatures clearly show the full-length red mantle and hood attached which was worn by couriers and envoys travelling abroad, and in general by most riders of importance undertaking longer journeys. The travelling cloak, reaching to the ankles or calves, and leaving only the face of the rider exposed, gave effective protection against rain, snow, dust, and wind. No traveller of the age, whether a courier on official business, a noble bound for the court, or a merchant with a pack on his back set out without a hooded mantle, and the better class of travellers also provided their horses with a similar protective horse-cloth. In the course of the centuries following the conquest of the country, the convoys of traders sought out the best trails to their destinations themselves. As most of them were either on foot or horseback and only a few possessed carts or wagons, they did not in fact feel the absence of man-made roads. Trade was still at that time confined in the main to fairs. In the eleventh century King Stephen, the first Hungarian king, (1000-1038) gave the monasteries the right to organize local fairs in order that the monks should not be obliged to travel for their food supplies, clothing and other necessities to distant places, but have these commodities brought to them. Craftsmen and merchants went from one fair to the other, carrying their wares in packs on their backs. The more well-to-do rode horses, mules or donkeys but only the wealthiest of them rode in carts or wagons with their goods. Most of the merchants were trading tribes from the East and Jews, who had traded in Hungary from the beginning of the state. As time went on, the number of foreign merchants visiting the more important Hungarian towns also increased. In the thirteenth century groups of Venetian and Dalmatian merchants brought the wares of the East to Hungary. German, Bohemian and even French merchants loaded with goods arrived in the capitals of the Hungarian kings. At that time the word “route” only implied a given direction and the towns through which they passed, and not any sort of man-made road. Courtesy Corvina Publishing Page 3
