Photos

Chapel from the Small Plain

The aim of founding the Szentendre Open Air Museum was to present folk architecture, interior decoration, farming and way of life in the Hungarian language area from the 2nd half of the 18th century to the 1st half of the 20th century, through original and authentic objects, relocated houses arranged in old settlement patters. The more and more elaborate settlement plan appropriates the relocation of more than 400 edifices into the museum, arranged into village-like regional units on the basis of ethnographical considerations.

Jánossomorja, Szent Anna chapel

Jánossomorja parish inhabitants made the village-chapel with a neo-classicist style build upon the memory of the 1831 cholera epidemic. They expanded the proportional building in 1858. The polygon ground-plan sanctuary a half cupola covers it. The entrance and it windows end arched. The holy Rozália sculpture is in the trapezoid closet above the entrance.

Kisalföld (Small Plain region)

Today the historic boundaries of the region are outside of Hungary today. Since the 18th century the flat areas of Pozsony, Moson, Nyitra, Komárom, Bars, Győr, and Sopron counties have been named Kisalföld (‘Small Plain’).

Kisalföld includes the flatlands (e.g. Szigetköz, Csallóköz) distributed by the Danube and its tributaries and the surrounding hilly country. Their economical and cultural developments are due to its favourable position and good soil. In the fertile land grain, on the sunny hillsides grapes and fruits have been growning. Owing to the waters rich in animals fishing has also been important. Animal husbandry and dairy farming linked to the haymaking in the pastures of the river flats. As a consequence of good transport and market possibilities (Vienna, Bratislava) it became the north-western trade port of the Carpathian Basin and this greatly affected folk culture. Lots of industrial and imported goods affected the traditional, e.g. those of clothing and farming. Farmers producing for the market – following the examples of the manors at Magyaróvár, Fertőd and Nagycenk – were open to innovations. Thanks to the products of the local Bokor and Kühne Engine Works automation of agricultural works became possible quite early. But not all the regions of Kisalföld developed with the same intensity. Isolated areas with less fertile soil or those devastated by the Turks in the eastern half of Kisalföld remained traditional in their way of life and architecture for quite a long time. Water regulation and drainage of Hanság was carried out only in the 19-20th centuries.

Since the 10-11th centuries Kisalföld was one of the largest territories inhabited solely by Hungarians. Since the 13th century ethnical diversity resulted from the German settlers, followed later by the Turkish-driven Croatians. German settling also occurred in the 18th century, changing the composition of population. Most of the people are Roman Catholic though there also a significant number of Lutherans.
(Source: skanzen)