To the Balaton: On the way to Balatonfured
Below is an account of a trip down to Füred (i.e. Balatonfüred) by the northern shore of the lake Balaton. This is an excerpt from John Paget's Hungary and Transylvania, published in 1850.
"About eighty miles south of Pest, on the shores of the Balaton, there is a pretty little bathing-place called Füred; which is worth the stranger’s visiting, as well for the beauty of the neighbouring scenery, as for the pleasant and sociable society which commonly assembles there.
"As the weather was fine, and nothing was going on of particular interest at Pest, we determined to avail ourselves of it; and, making our arrangements accordingly for a few days’ excursion, started for Füred.
"The road as far as Stuhlweissenburg, which terminated our first day’s journey, contains little of interest, except a good house and pretty park of Count Brunswick’s at Márton Vásár, where we stopped to dine. Márton Vásár is rather a favourable specimen of an Hungarian village, and the inn bore marks of a thriving commerce; and, as a specimen of its class, I may as well describe it. It is a long one-storied house, forming two sides of a court-yard, and, besides the kitchen and landlord’s room, contains a large drinking-room for the peasants, and two strangers’ rooms. The latter have boarded floors, thickly strewn over with sand; and are furnished each with two beds, a table, and three or four wooden chairs. In half an hour we had a dinner of a soup, bouilli, vegetables cooked in grease, roast fowls, and pancakes; and such is the common fare and ordinary accommodation of the country inns of Hungary.
"I was wrong in saying that there was nothing of interest save Count Brunswick’s house; for, a little further on, we observed several villages built under ground, the roof being the only part of the houses visible. We examined some of these burrows, for such they literally are; and found them mere holes cut in the ground, roofed in with straw, and entered by a sloping path, frequently without any other opening than the doorway and chimney, and as filthy and miserable as can well be imagined. What may seem to render the fact more extraordinary is, that one of these villages, we were told, is inhabited entirely by noblemen; that is, by men who possess a small portion of land, pay no taxes to Government, and are free from all seigneurial impositions. Let the reader keep this fact in mind; for it serves to show that it is not the amount of taxation which renders men poor and miserable, but the absence of a knowledge and desire of something better, and of the industry and thousand virtues to which that knowledge gives birth. It is but fair to say that I never saw such houses in any other part of Hungary; though I believe, during the Turkish war, a great part of the country was reduced to a similar state.
"Stuhlweissenburg, though formerly a Roman town, and a name of frequent occurrence in Hungarian history, contains nothing remarkable. The palace of the bishop, and some of the buildings connected with it, are handsome; but the streets are badly paved, and the whole town disagreeably placed in the centre of a huge bog.
"The next morning we passed through Palota, and while we were waiting for fresh horses walked round the ruins of the old castle, which a Count Zichy -- one of the fifty-two Counts Zichy of Hungary -- has had the good taste to repair and render habitable.
"At Veszprim, the seat of another bishop, we stayed long enough to visit the handsome Episcopal palace, which crowns a steep hill that formerly bore one of the most important fortresses of Hungary. This was for a long time in the possession of the Turks; and contains a memorial of their residence, the more interesting from its rarity. One slender minaret, erected by the Turks above and old Gothic tower, still retains its elegant proportions. It now serves as a watch-tower against fire: where the Muezzim daily called the faithful Moslem to his spiritual duties, a watchman now warns his Christian brethren of danger to their worldly goods.
"The town of Veszprim is chiefly supported by trade, but not of a very high class. It contains few good houses, but has less appearance of absolute poverty about it than almost any town I know. A party of the better sort of country people, whom we fell in with in this neighbourhood, gave us but a bad character of the bishop and chapter of Veszprim as landlords. They complained sadly of their oppression, and said that the peasants of the church were worse off even than the peasants of the nobles, for the masters of the former had no permanent interest in their welfare, but tried to grasp as much as they could during the short period of their enjoyment. A young girl of about eighteen years of age, one of the party, observed rather caustically, “Ach Gott! Hungarian priests are not worse than any other priests; they are all tyrants when they have the power to be so.” It is curious that, round the room of the village inn where this conversation occurred, were hung the portraits of Lord John Russel, Stanley, Burdett, and Count Szechenyi.
"As we pursued our journey, early as it was in the year, we had several opportunities of remarking the old custom of treading out the corn by oxen or horses, so often and so beautifully alluded to in sacred history. It is commonly performed in the open field where the corn is cut. A flat piece of ground is prepared, by paring and beating till it is quite hard, for the “threshing-floor;” the corn is then strewn over it; and a boy with a long whip stands in the centre, and drives the animals round the ring till it the whole is sufficiently cleaned. It is still considered in Hungary the part of a miser “to muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn.” I cannot explain the pleasurable feeling produced by an actual illustration of this kind, simple as it is, of images which have been familiar to the mind from our earliest infancy, but of which we have never felt half the force or beauty till actually before our eyes.
"It was near evening as we came in view of the Balaton; and, if not grand, its shores have sufficient hill and wood, as seen from this point, to give them all the character of pretty lake scenery. Füred is a bathing-place which has come into vogue only within the last few years; and, except for the huge Horvathischen Haus, and a few other less pretending buildings, it is yet as near a state of nature as the most romantic could desire. The Horvathischen Haus is a large hotel, or rather lodging-house, which has been built by Mr. Horvath, the owner of the place; and, except the rooms reserved for his family, it let out to visiters at a very moderate rate."
"About eighty miles south of Pest, on the shores of the Balaton, there is a pretty little bathing-place called Füred; which is worth the stranger’s visiting, as well for the beauty of the neighbouring scenery, as for the pleasant and sociable society which commonly assembles there.
"As the weather was fine, and nothing was going on of particular interest at Pest, we determined to avail ourselves of it; and, making our arrangements accordingly for a few days’ excursion, started for Füred.
"The road as far as Stuhlweissenburg, which terminated our first day’s journey, contains little of interest, except a good house and pretty park of Count Brunswick’s at Márton Vásár, where we stopped to dine. Márton Vásár is rather a favourable specimen of an Hungarian village, and the inn bore marks of a thriving commerce; and, as a specimen of its class, I may as well describe it. It is a long one-storied house, forming two sides of a court-yard, and, besides the kitchen and landlord’s room, contains a large drinking-room for the peasants, and two strangers’ rooms. The latter have boarded floors, thickly strewn over with sand; and are furnished each with two beds, a table, and three or four wooden chairs. In half an hour we had a dinner of a soup, bouilli, vegetables cooked in grease, roast fowls, and pancakes; and such is the common fare and ordinary accommodation of the country inns of Hungary.
"I was wrong in saying that there was nothing of interest save Count Brunswick’s house; for, a little further on, we observed several villages built under ground, the roof being the only part of the houses visible. We examined some of these burrows, for such they literally are; and found them mere holes cut in the ground, roofed in with straw, and entered by a sloping path, frequently without any other opening than the doorway and chimney, and as filthy and miserable as can well be imagined. What may seem to render the fact more extraordinary is, that one of these villages, we were told, is inhabited entirely by noblemen; that is, by men who possess a small portion of land, pay no taxes to Government, and are free from all seigneurial impositions. Let the reader keep this fact in mind; for it serves to show that it is not the amount of taxation which renders men poor and miserable, but the absence of a knowledge and desire of something better, and of the industry and thousand virtues to which that knowledge gives birth. It is but fair to say that I never saw such houses in any other part of Hungary; though I believe, during the Turkish war, a great part of the country was reduced to a similar state.
"Stuhlweissenburg, though formerly a Roman town, and a name of frequent occurrence in Hungarian history, contains nothing remarkable. The palace of the bishop, and some of the buildings connected with it, are handsome; but the streets are badly paved, and the whole town disagreeably placed in the centre of a huge bog.
"The next morning we passed through Palota, and while we were waiting for fresh horses walked round the ruins of the old castle, which a Count Zichy -- one of the fifty-two Counts Zichy of Hungary -- has had the good taste to repair and render habitable.
"At Veszprim, the seat of another bishop, we stayed long enough to visit the handsome Episcopal palace, which crowns a steep hill that formerly bore one of the most important fortresses of Hungary. This was for a long time in the possession of the Turks; and contains a memorial of their residence, the more interesting from its rarity. One slender minaret, erected by the Turks above and old Gothic tower, still retains its elegant proportions. It now serves as a watch-tower against fire: where the Muezzim daily called the faithful Moslem to his spiritual duties, a watchman now warns his Christian brethren of danger to their worldly goods.
"The town of Veszprim is chiefly supported by trade, but not of a very high class. It contains few good houses, but has less appearance of absolute poverty about it than almost any town I know. A party of the better sort of country people, whom we fell in with in this neighbourhood, gave us but a bad character of the bishop and chapter of Veszprim as landlords. They complained sadly of their oppression, and said that the peasants of the church were worse off even than the peasants of the nobles, for the masters of the former had no permanent interest in their welfare, but tried to grasp as much as they could during the short period of their enjoyment. A young girl of about eighteen years of age, one of the party, observed rather caustically, “Ach Gott! Hungarian priests are not worse than any other priests; they are all tyrants when they have the power to be so.” It is curious that, round the room of the village inn where this conversation occurred, were hung the portraits of Lord John Russel, Stanley, Burdett, and Count Szechenyi.
"As we pursued our journey, early as it was in the year, we had several opportunities of remarking the old custom of treading out the corn by oxen or horses, so often and so beautifully alluded to in sacred history. It is commonly performed in the open field where the corn is cut. A flat piece of ground is prepared, by paring and beating till it is quite hard, for the “threshing-floor;” the corn is then strewn over it; and a boy with a long whip stands in the centre, and drives the animals round the ring till it the whole is sufficiently cleaned. It is still considered in Hungary the part of a miser “to muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn.” I cannot explain the pleasurable feeling produced by an actual illustration of this kind, simple as it is, of images which have been familiar to the mind from our earliest infancy, but of which we have never felt half the force or beauty till actually before our eyes.
"It was near evening as we came in view of the Balaton; and, if not grand, its shores have sufficient hill and wood, as seen from this point, to give them all the character of pretty lake scenery. Füred is a bathing-place which has come into vogue only within the last few years; and, except for the huge Horvathischen Haus, and a few other less pretending buildings, it is yet as near a state of nature as the most romantic could desire. The Horvathischen Haus is a large hotel, or rather lodging-house, which has been built by Mr. Horvath, the owner of the place; and, except the rooms reserved for his family, it let out to visiters at a very moderate rate."
Labels: balaton, Tourists, Travel in Hungary
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