# Layout, Fireplace and Lighting

The earliest form of the Hungarian house probably had one room. This conclusion is supported by the fact that the word ház (house) designates both the structure itself and the room, later called szoba. That is why the present-day peasant usage speaks about elsőház, front room, and hátsóház, backroom. Excavations from the 11th to the 13th centuries discovered one-roomed pits, although even then there undoubtedly were larger structures with raised walls. These pit-houses were sunk 100 to 120 cm deep into the ground, so that only part of the building along with the roof was projecting. There are records from the 14th and 15th centuries of houses with two and three divisions or rooms, and this is also authenticated by excavations.

Fig. 31. A smoky kitchen with a bank.
Kadarkút, Somogy County. Early 20th century.
The oven is in the background, in the front, a Balkan type of cauldron is hanging from a chain

63. Chimneyless kitchen of a cottage built on a log foundation
Szenna, Somogy County

64. Kitchen interior
Bogyoszló, Győr-Sopron County

This is why the formerly one-room house, from which the baking {149.} ovens and, during the major part of the year, even the open fireplace were placed out of doors, became a structure suitable for containing a permanent fireplace. Such a joint house, where the division of room, kitchen, and pantry can be found, could be 15 to 21 metres long and 4 to 6 metres wide. The floor space of the living room itself might be 6×8 metres in size. In such a building, the kitchen is in the centre, as it is later. With this the Hungarian house had arrived at a degree of development which, although refined in its minor details, did not develop further in basic character.

The fireplace played the greatest role in earlier and later development. The various versions of the fireplace within the house can be easily ascertained. Nothing proves its importance better than the fact that the fireplace is the centre of Hungarian family life and its figurative meanings are still alive in the Hungarian language: háztűznézni, “to have a look at the fireplace”, that is, to look over the bride’s and bridegroom’s house before the wedding; családi tűzhelyet alapítani, “to found a family fireplace”, that is, to get married and to move to a separate house. When the new bride is led into the house of the new bridegroom, she is taken around the fireplace and with this becomes a member of the family, possessing definite rights.

65. Székely open fireplace
Székelylanti, Rumania

66. Open fireplace with chimney
Gyimesközéplok, former Csík County

Fig. 34. A variation of the open fireplace called kabola in the corner of the house.
Karcsa, former Zemplén County. Early 20th century

Fig. 35. An open fireplace of the house called cserepes.
Siklód, former Udvarhely County. Early 20th century

In the single-room houses dating from the 10th to the 13th centuries and sunk half into the ground, ovens have been excavated which were on the same level as the house, were dug into the ground, and extended {151.} beyond the wall of the building. Beside these, some clues that have been discovered suggest the existence of a protective roof over the open fireplaces in the immediate vicinity of the buildings. Broken pieces of clay pots excavated around the area testify that cooking took place outside the house during a significant part of the year. Ovens were also found near the buildings, sunk into the ground, repeatedly rebuilt and used for decades. Because the phonetic and semantic explanation of the Hungarian word kemence (oven) can come only from Russian, the word and the building itself must belong to the Magyar culture that had evolved on the South Russian steppes.

As is apparent from the above, the hearth arrangements of the Hungarian house were divided from the beginning into open and closed fireplaces. It is unnecessary to divide them in time and space, because generally they existed alongside each other and supplemented each other functionally. The open fireplace served to heat and to light the room, and was used for cooking and baking. The closed fireplace was used for cooking and baking only.

Fig. 32. Symmetrical andirons with four feet called "firedogs".
1. Darufalva, Sopron County. 19th century. 2. Meszlen, Vas County. 19th century. 3. Debrecen, 19th century

Among the changing variety of open fireplaces, the clay corner bank, a round or square bench about 30 cm high, is frequent in the southern part of Transdanubia. On this the open fire was lit in the szenes ház (house with embers). Because the bank was directly attached to the wall, a wattle wall the height of a man plastered with mud was raised in order to protect the log wall from getting too hot. Cooking was done in a cauldron that hung over the open fire from a chain attached to a beam. In this area of Transdanubia the pear-shaped copper kettle was used, which originated in the Balkans. The smoke of the open fire went out through the door, which is why such buildings were called füstös ház (smoky house), or konyha (kitchen), since the smoke covered its walls with soot.

Such open fireplaces were used not only for cooking, but also for roasting. The so-called firedog (tűzikutya) was used for the latter. Firedogs were placed on each side of the fire to support the pieces of skewered meat. Flat stones were also put on these open fireplaces which became so hot that meat or some sorts of griddle cakes could be baked quickly. The baking bell (sütőharang) was also used on the open fireplace. A stone was heated, then covered with the baking bell which, in Transdanubia, was made of baked clay and in Transylvania, was carved of stone. Griddle cakes and meat baked very well under it.

Fig. 33. Baking bells.
Transylvania. Second half of 19th century

In the Tiszántúl cooking was done on a clay stand built in the centre of the kitchen, which was located between two rooms. This platform was 50 to 60 cm high and at most one metre square. The open chimney that encircled the entire kitchen functioned not only to extract smoke but also to smoke meat, bacon, and sausage that was hung up there.

67. Oven in a Palots house
Balassagyarmat, Palóc Museum

Fig. 36. A round oven named búbos kemence.
Kiskunhalas, Bács-Kiskun County. 1930s

The hearth (kandalló) is one of the characteristic forms of open fireplaces. In it the fire burns on a low bank. Above it is a chimney of plastered wicker or, in a more developed version, of tiles which leads the smoke to the attic or to the porch. Earlier, such a hearth stood in the living room and often was built together with the oven. Generally we can find versions of it in the eastern part of the Hungarian linguistic region. It is known in Transylvania from the 16th and 17th centuries. Its {152.} location and form testify to its Mediterranean, more precisely to its Italian, origin. Perhaps it came into the castles of Transylvania at the time of the Renaissance and found its way into the peasant houses from there.

68. Open fireplace with a cooking stove
Ziliz, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County

Fig. 37. An oven with a chimney and banks around it.
Former Borsod County. Early 20th century

We can find the most varied and most beautiful examples of such hearths in Székelyland under the names góc, pest, and they are described as cserepes, tiled, after the material and method of their making. Their smoke-catcher, rectangular in shape, is covered with tile on all sides, and so retains the heat better. Smoke is led up to the attic through a chimney stack. Not only was a 15 to 20 cm high bench built for the hearth, but it was also closed off on one side by means of a wall and supported on the opposite side with a richly carved leg. As this construction makes it impossible to hang the kettle from a beam, they constructed a pivoting wooden leg (üsttartó kollát) that turns the kettle over the fire. Pots were put on a three-legged, low iron stand (vasláb or ironleg), and baked pancakes on a flat stone. Various types of such hearths and similar {153.} ones existed in the eastern half of the Hungarian linguistic region. To a certain extent, they formed a transition to ovens with an enclosed fire.

Fig. 38. An oven with a long chimney like a pipe.
Former Borsod County. Early 20th century

The shape of the ovens (búbos or boglyakemence) in the Great Plain was square or, like hayricks, barrel-shaped or round on top. First its frame is made out of stakes and woven with wicker, then plastered with mud mixed with pieces of sherds. The mouth of such a hearth opens into the kitchen. Its size depends on how many loaves of bread are to be baked in it. Seven to eight large loaves of bread fit into the largest ones, which can occupy a quarter of the room; in the smaller ones there is room for only three loaves. The oven is heated with straw, corn stalks, and, formerly, with reeds. Frequently, in the Great Plain cow dung was kneaded with straw, formed into squares, and dried. This peat (tőzeg) provided a good steady heat. Besides cooking, such a fireplace was used primarily for heating, and a bank suitable for sitting on, ran around its edge, while there was a small nook (sut, kuckó) in its inner corner that served as a resting or often as a sleeping place for children or old folk.

Fig. 39. An oven with a chimney.
Martonyi, former Borsod County. Early 20th century

The Palots hearth is low, long, and rectangular in shape, with benches running along its free-standing side. Earlier the smoke went out through the opening cut on the narrower front side and usually left the building through the door of the house. In the next phase of development a 50 to 60 cm diameter chimney stack (kürtő) was set over the mouth of the hearth like an umbrella, which channelled the smoke to the attic. Later a chimney was raised in the middle of the building, and this created the cylinder-shaped pipe (síp), through which the smoke was drawn to the porch and then outside. Although cooking and baking was done on this hearth, its primary purpose was to keep the room warm. The children slept on top of it, and the men lay down on its bench for a brief rest. They spread corn and various types of grain on it to dry during the day. Usually twigs and wood were burned in it, and the light coming out of its opening let the women see while spinning.

We can assume that the baking oven moved out of the house in Székelyland centuries ago. The more prosperous built a separate baking house (sütőház), while others placed the oven behind the building under {154.} the eaves. They built it on benches, at the front of which they could cook in a kettle hanging over an open fire. So here, as well as frequently in other places, the open and closed fireplace occurred simultaneously.

Fig. 40. A stove built out of “cupped” tiles.
Decs, Tolna County. Early 20th century

Ovens built outdoors are frequently encountered throughout the greater part of the linguistic region, but especially in its western half. These ovens are partly low, partly rick-shaped, and were placed in a distant corner of the yard or garden, in order to decrease the fire risk. In some places, the ovens were built outside the village because of this consideration. In such cases more than one family could use them just as they used the common, open-air baking ovens that were raised on the manors of the large estates between the dwellings of agricultural labourers. In these forms we can perhaps presume Mediterranean influence creeping in from the south, where outdoor hearths were favoured on account of the climate.

69. Round oven
Tápé, Csongrád County

70. Tile-stove with “eyes”
Szenna, Somogy County

Fig. 41. A crane to hold taper-wood.
1. Szalafő, Vas County. Early 20th century. 2. Kondorfa, Vas County. Early 20th century. 3. Hejce, Abaúj County. Early 20th century

The stove (kályha) represented the further development of the completely enclosed fireplaces in Hungary, which came from the West, first {155.} into the castles and country homes of the nobility, and thence to the peasant houses. Early models imitated the baking ovens, except that earthenware vessels were put into the clay, which increased both heat retention and heat emanation. The earthenware tiles, called kályhaszem, “stove eye”, are rectangular, shaped like a bowl, concave and are made mostly by potters of Transdanubia. We know of such stoves from the region between the Danube and Tisza from excavations, but their later use here is rare. In Transdanubia, on the other hand, stoves expelled the baking ovens completely from the houses and were used only for heating.

Open fireplaces also lit the room. In this respect the light that seeped out of the opening of the hearth was very important, just as was the light that came from the door of the oven. When people were looking for something in a further corner of the room or when they went out to the porch, they took a small piece of burning wood out of the fire and gave light with it. This, or a piece of ember, picked up quickly by hand or with tongs, served to light a pipe.

Fig. 42. Oil-lamps.
1. Jákótelke, Kolozs County. 2. Bozok, former Hont County. 3. Oil-lamp with a candlestick. Veszprém County. Early 20th century

{156.} The specially made and split splinters, taper-wood (fokla), made in most places out of pinewood; must have developed out of this occasional usage. On the other hand the Palots dried the thinner branches of the hazelnut, hornbeam, or willow trees, then beat them with an axe head until their fibres separated. These were parched for a short time in the hearth, then stored on its top. They lit one end and placed it on the edge of the bench of the hearth. The Hungarians of Slavonia, in the western part of Transdanubia, stuck them into potatoes, but in other places people made holders (foklatartó) for this purpose. Such a crane holder is a tall stand, resting on a base the same height as the furniture, especially the table, so that its light can shine on the table. Splinters were fastened to an iron pin at the top end of the holder, which thus gave some light all round the room. The Csángós of Gyimes pour pine pitch between four or five thin splinters and thus increase the light given by the lit bundle. Others pour the pine pitch into a small dish, mix dry spruce splinters with it, and light it.

More than anything, oils of various kinds were used for lighting. Rape, pumpkin, acorn, and later on sunflower oil gave the clearest light. The oil was put into small dishes such as night-lights (mécs), made by potters, and the wick was held up by a small, wooden, light float (úszó). Now and then lard was used, perhaps even butter, but only if there was no suitable oil.

71. Vessel for dipping candles
Kecskemét, Katona József Museum

One of the most widely spread means of lighting is the candle, first made from beeswax, then from tallow, and later from stearin. Primarily sheep and cow tallow was used for this purpose. They poured one-third boiling water and two-thirds tallow together in a big vessel and {157.} continued to keep it warm. They dipped a wick into it, upon which the liquid gradually settled. The name of this process is candle dipping (gyertyamártás). Later they poured the tallow into a tin or glass shape, around a previously fixed wick. This already had become the occupation of small craftsmen, the candle makers. Candles were fastened into quite varied holders made of clay, metal, glass, wood, or other materials, which made it a great deal easier to use them. Candles were used out-of-doors or in the barn only when placed in a holder surrounded on four sides by a cow bladder, plates of horn, or later on, glass. Some such lanterns were made of tin with ornamental openings for the light to shine through.

The kerosene lamp and the various kinds of factory-made lamps that accompanied it appeared at the end of the last century. It has been replaced–in many places only in the last decades–by electricity.

Among the Hungarian peasantry, the lighting of the evening light took place with a certain amount of ceremony. It was carried out by the mistress of the house or the oldest daughter, and the members of the family, or the strangers who might happen to be there, wished each other good evening.