TREASURES OF BARANYA

B A L ÁZS JUH ÁS Z

TREASURES OF BARANYA

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TREASURES OF BARANYA Photos: Balázs Juhász Written by: Borbála Kerekes

The clatter of rattles disturbs the dream of the Danube: the grin of masks painted with blood awakens the countryside from the night. Roosters go crazy crowing on Szársomlyó Hill, and black cats pulling a plough run on the ridge. They are chased by the devil. The sun doesn’t sleep anymore; it urges figures frozen in stone to start moving. None of them do; they stare down silently from Jacob’s Hill, frozen in dispute.

Where the Drava flows, peaks grow like mushrooms. Traditional folk houses on feet are the spots on their cap. And ice floes swim a race on the river that is always running late. The song of a muezzin calls for prayer from the mountain, and the dignified figure of Miklós Zrínyi says no to the peculiar sound. Suddenly the scent of yeast dumplings, sausage, Šokci bean soup, spicy pepper, onion and tomato dish, and fisherman’s soup tempts the stomach. And the red wine flows: it colours the glass and the soul, and tells of the grapes. Between the Drava and the Danube, furthest down and southernmost, between mountains, deep in forests. This is where the tale begins. Which, in fact, is not a tale, but reality itself. A reality whose heroes you, too, can meet. A kind of ‘once upon a time’ world that you can now wander through. But you will not be alone. A map will help and guide you along the way. And the map is hidden in the treasure chest that holds all these adventures. So open the chest with the key you have in your hand right here! With the key of the ‘Treasures of Baranya’!

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Stretch together with the soft morning sun, as the first stop on the map shows a boat near the Croatian border where the Danube makes a short detour.

Sit in the boat and head for the first treasure! The Danube carries you diligently on its waves, never caring about the lazy morning. There’s no time to lose, because the journey is long, and there is so much to do: lakes and backwaters are waiting to be filled. Here, in the Béda-Karapancsa region, too.

In times of flooding there is even more to do: step out of the river bed, leave the route, because the floodplain will feed birds, fish, nature, and the endless silence of the countryside. And the eyes and the soul! The famous Captain Cousteau recharged on the love of the world’s waters all his life, yet, while shooting the Danube film, he said that of all the landscapes, this one meant special joy for him.

White storks bringing good luck, and fishermen are also attracted to the Béda by the food: the fish. Before the flood control, visitors of the Béda were welcomed by oak boats and rafts made of four boards, rows of net dryers, net-drying fields, and round reed huts set into the ground on the floodplain farms. Such huts were inhabited mostly by German-speaking professional fishermen working in guilds who had to work their way up many steps to learn this difficult craft.

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The apprentices joined a master fisherman around the age of ten and served five years there. By then, they made their own chest with the date, name, and one or two ornate gold carps on the front. They started wandering with this chest. Returning from the journey they could apply for admission to the guild: they could become masters. The fishermen’s wives sold the family goods in the Mohács fish market or in the streets, and of course, they were masterful cooks of fish dishes.

Do not expect lunchtime fish from the fishermen of Béda by the noon church bell, because despite the name, it was eaten in the evening. In the old days, soup noodles were kneaded to go with it, and the fish was strained in a densely woven landing net: every family of fishermen received a serving of midday fish per day. You won’t go hungry yet again: the next stop on the map is Mohács.

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And this time, even without a map, the flavours will lead us to the next treasure, to a world full of South Slavic tales and ancient instincts, to the Šokci land. Traditionally, the Catholic Baranya Croatians make a cross after prayer with a whole ‘saka’, that is, with the whole palm of their hand. Maybe this is the root of the name ‘Šokci’. The Šokci fled from the border area of Bosnia to the territory of Hungary in the 16th century during the Turkish oppression. From an area that is rich in salt mines. Sókút, sokutac, sokac: this can also explain the origin of the name.

They not only preserved their beliefs but also their customs and cuisine for the 21st century.

And a gift that has been preserved for 400 years must be unwrapped with care. This is what you do when you taste the Šokci bean soup, dance to the sounds of the tamburica at a Kásád wedding, bring clothes to the Washing in the Danube, or peek behind the Busó mask.

Even the icy month of February sweats under the sheepskin coats with their fur outside. Winter should be scared!

Ratchets are screeching, tamburica is playing, and a liquor bottle lurks in the bread sack. The cowbell tied to the Busós’ waist with a cattle rope rings with every step of the colourful socks in leather shoes. The drilled holes made for the eyes and the knocked-out gaps in the grinning row of wooden teeth let in a little bit of the outside world, but only the Busó knows who is inside. What’s in there?

The state of consciousness of transformation. The poklade. The secret. The Busó’s secret of who he is. And about what Mohács is like that he sees through a blood-painted mask that only allows tunnel vision.The charade of the Busó crowd arrives on boats from Kismohács, from the Island. ‘Bao-bao!’ Shout the grinning faces with knocked-out teeth carved from willow and smeared with beef or pig blood to bring us a blessing. Next to them, the pretty Busós in veils and traditional Šokci dress go hand in hand.

Farther away, the Jankeles hit the audience with sacks of straw; they are the bodyguards of the Busós.

It is said that the Turks drove the South Slavic Šokci who lived here into the surrounding moorland, who then crossed the Danube and chased away the intruders by hiding behind scary masks. Today the winter is chased away like this. At dusk, they dance around the bonfire, which symbolizes the coffin of winter, in the main square. ‘Bao-bao!’

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And if your eyes are tired of the dazzling white, the map also marks a black world. Wine flows from black jugs, walnuts are crumbled in black mortars, water travels in black cans, soup sparkles in black plates, black bowls are lined up on the wall, and black Busó stares with black eyes. And a city of Baranya enters its name in the big book of folk clay art with black pottery; with the famous black pottery of Mohács. But no one is turned off by the dark colour around here. After all, women wore black clothes on holidays even at the beginning of the last century, and the colour of mourning in South Baranya was white.

And black is the trademark of the ceramics made in Mohács. The clay shaped by László Lakatos in his workshop in Mohács is of course not originally black. He learned from his father that all openings in the furnace must be closed if the pots glow red when burning: throttling and reduction turn the color of the pot black. The pattern is traditionally grooved or scrubbed with pebbles before firing. In the 18th and 19th centuries, hundreds of such black pots were delivered by the Danube to all parts of the country and the Balkans.

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Blauer Portugieser flows out of Márok wedding jugs until dawn. Our new bearing on the map is where the mouth of the bottle points: in the direction of wine. It is said that after the conquest, Knight Bor and his people set up camp in the Villány wine region, exactly where the next treasure lies. So take it out of the chest, sip the wine, and let an old tale emerge from the bottom of the bottle!

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Perhaps you think that winemakers didn’t have much to do before planting the grapes because the devil has already ploughed the area. But the devil was not very gracious to the vinegrowers! The Devil’s Cauldron (Ördögárok), located between the Villány Mountains, the Templom Hill (Templom-hegy) and the banks of the Karasica brook, gives the grapes everything they need: loess and red clay on a limestone-dolomite bedrock, excellent microclimate of the warm, highhumidity air trapped in the valley, sunshine, and rain. But the area is a valley surrounded by very steep hillsides, where a series of terraces had to be built with great effort to plant the grapes.

But it was worth it! Hungary’s top wines rest in the barrels of the best winemakers in this region.

At almost every point of the huge area of the Devil’s Cauldron, grapes are exposed to different circumstances, and the result can be Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir, and Tempranillo, but also Portugieser or Merlot. Our wine-seasoned trips have not come to an end yet. If you got out of the Devil’s Cauldron, move on before night-fall.

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Hide the recipe of Villány wine deep in your bag: warm, sunny weather, dry summer, red clay deposited on limestone, loess mixed with brown forest soil, and a big dose of love. Plus the diligent Swabians who settled here in the 18th century. They built the cellars of this wine region, and they brought the Blauer Portugieser with them.

Although the wine region got its name after Villány, the neighbouring settlements add to the shared wine barrel as much as Villány. For example, Palkonya and the legendary red church dome. Or Villánykövesd, which is sometimes mistaken for Villány on the postcards, and its beautiful cellars, and Nagyharsány located at the foot of Szársomlyó.

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On the southern side of the Beremend hill, unusual shaped bell towers grow out of the rock. Refugees of the South Slavic war also stood where you stand now. Wherever you look, they saw their villages, churches, and homes being destroyed on the other side of the border. The Chapel of Reconciliation was built for them and for Germans deported after World War II by different nationalities and religious denominations as a sign of peace.

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With the next wedding invitation, you will get even closer to the Croatian border than before. The custom of celebrating a wedding in Kasád has a lot of similarities to the neighbours’.

A red scarf is on the girl’s head. The women are adjusting an ornate crown on her forehead. This is the last step of dressing.

Slowly it’s time to say goodbye: the wedding party has already been at the groom’s house, they are now proceeding for the bride with God’s blessing. Follow the flag; go after the best man, you see the rosemary of loyalty on his vest. The bride’s mother kisses the girl and hands her over to her suitor. The wedding party dances in the yard of the parental home. They head for the church together; nearly 300 guests celebrate the young couple. After the ceremony, the cooks drum on the empty pots with wooden spoons: they don’t open the gates until the best man pays. The pot full of money is a wedding gift.

So is the sugar cake, towering like lace, which is given by the groomsman to the newlyweds. They crunch the cake with their palms on top of each other, and each guest takes a piece.

Calvinist Hungarians lived in the Ormánság for centuries. In their churches with coffered ceilings, the ancient Hungarian symbols were painted mainly with red, yellow, blue, green, and white tempera on the wooden carved ceilings, on the sides of the benches, or the preacher’s chair two hundred years ago. Most of them were later painted over, and they often emerged from under the plaster only by chance.

The ceiling of the church in Kórós preserves 66 wooden coffers separated by thin slats. Next to the three-petalled tulips, flowers, tendrils, and leaves, the following inscription reminds us: ‘This Holy Place was extended in the year of 1834.’ Take a look at the front of the pews and the detailed decoration, too, the latter being the work of János Gyarmati, a carpenter from Vajszló.

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In the church of Drávaivány, you can gaze at 167 painted coffers. One of them tells the story of the punishment of sins: it warns of the flood, but also brings the mercy of peace after the flood. This is the only church in the Ormánság where not only motifs but also figures greet us from the ceiling when we enter the church. In a royal place, in the middle, you’ll find the creators’ royal coffer and look for the emblem in a fish-tailed, crowned mermaid holding a sword and a pigeon next to it holding an olive branch in its beak.

If the ceiling collapses, it certainly indicates that someone is hiding the truth. This is exactly what happened in the church of Zaláta when a huge piece of plaster fell from the ceiling above the organ gallery in the ‘70s. That is when people found the beautiful truth hiding beneath the surface. Until then, the top was covered by a white marble-looking layer on a grey background. Underneath, there was a layer of oil paint, and from an even earlier time, royal blue painted boards were found with a lively tendril motifs decoration. All these are now being carefully preserved in the best possible condition for the future.

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And if you are full, you can head on to your next stop, to Püspökszentlászló. You will need common sense here because, in this village in eastern Mecsek, pancakes are only baked on one side. Don’t fall for this joke, though! Look at the steep side of the valley and you will see that Püspökszentlászló only has one street, and the houses are built only on the northern side. Of course, they only bake pancakes on this one side! The 32 plots of land are now home to more than 20 permanent residents, who live in the farmhouses, which have been preserved in their original state. And many come for recreation to the part of the village which belongs to Hosszúhetény, where you can often hear foreign words through the windows: many come from abroad.

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The adventure of the treasure hunt has been going on for oh, so long, but the treasure chest has not offered your stomach any substantial delicacies for a while. You will not miss this in Feked! But before the feast, draw a little tongue twister riddle out of the chest: “ Stifoller készíti a Stifoldert, a Stifi egy Sommerwurst Fuldából.” Say this sentence to a local in Feked and you will definitely receive a warm welcome. But just to make sure you understand what you are saying, here is the explanation: The German settlers, the ‘stifollers’, who came from the Abbey of Fulda, Hessen, were masters of sausage-making, and their specialty was the mouth-watering, spicy thick sausage called ‘stifolder’, or nicknamed ‘stifi’, which was cold-smoked to then ripen by the summer. This is how it is made: take one-third cooked paufleck, that is, the belly flank and some lean jowl bacon. Add two-thirds freshly butchered sausage meat. Mince, seasone, and pile in a wooden trough and then knead endlessly until the paste comes off the palm fibrously. Then it is done. Let yourself and the mixture rest for a day! The next day add hot peppers, fill it in pig casing, and let it rest again! Hang it in the smokehouse for 2-3 months! Beech, oak, or acacia is the best. By the time you finish harvesting in the summer, it will be ripe.

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„Far, far away is a plain where the corporal calls for a line, far away four momentous towers, a minaret, and arch; far away the green top of smoky Mecsek renews the view, and at least gives the eyes its fresh greenery.”

This sounds like another riddle from the treasure chest but the four momentous towers immediately give away the clue to the lines of Mihály Babits’s poem: a cathedral greets you because you have arrived at the county town. Welcome to Pécs! The far-away southern part is flat. To the north, the city extends up to the green slopes of the Mecsek and spreads into its valleys. If you fancy a run through this city, expect to climb from the height of 150 meters to a steep 400-600 meters.

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On a summer afternoon on the limestone cliffs of the Mecsek above the city or on the narrow streets and in the evening bustle of the city centre, you will understand why Pécs is often referred to as a Mediterranean city.

The more than 20,000 Hungarian and foreign students of the University of Pécs greet each other in the most diverse languages of the world on the streets, in the squares, and in the entertainment venues. Even on an average weekday, the night is lively and the festival season livens up the days, too: once Placido Domingo performs with his ensemble, other times the light festival paints the city or the POSZT (the Pécs National Theatre Festival) turns the squares into theatre and you can also have fun with drinking-songs in the golden autumn. And if you smell the scent of the Mediterranean Sea here, you have a very good nose: although the sea is far away, the Mediterranean is in the air, in the night lights, in the morning greetings, and in handshakes of Pécs.

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We move on a few metres in space and several centuries in time. The time machine is still in the 4th century when foundations of the Basilica of Pécs were being laid not far from the Cella Septichora.

According to medieval chronicles, the present Pécs Cathedral was built in the 11th century during the reign of the Venetian-born Hungarian king Peter Orseolo who later found eternal rest in the church’s crypt. A few decades later, King Solomon and his cousins were buried in the cathedral. For many years Géza and Ladislaus had been at odds with their cousin Solomon, the heir to the kingdom. The family quarrel ended at Easter 1064: Géza placed the crown on Solomon’s head with his own hands in the original church. It remains a mystery forever what caused the fire after the festive ceremony that burned most of the building to the ground.

„I am glad to be here in Pécs, in a city rich in historical memories; I am glad to be among you as the Pope of Rome.” Pope John Paul II greeted the crowd of Pécs gathered for his arrival and the church was given the title of basilica minor.

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The organ playing in the Cathedral is the great work of a family from Pécs.

Over eight decades five men from the Angster Organ and Harmonium factory made 1,300 organs and 3,600 harmoniums in the Pécs factory, including the beautiful organ of the Cathedral. The instrument has recently been fitted with a unique digital playback system, the only one of its kind in the world: it is linked to a computer that can be controlled from anywhere in the church using a tablet. The system does not record any sounds, the organ pipes sound even if the organist is not present.

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The University of Pécs celebrated its 650th anniversary in 2017, so our next stop is 1367. And if Babits welcomed us to the county town, let Arany János open the door of the university with his lines from ‘Toldi’s Eve’: ‘ ”Several of those visited Pécs, where Louis lit the torch of science.”

The initiative of King Louis the Great in founding Hungary’s first university in Pécs was a huge investment, and not only because of the construction work. The salary of foreign professors was sky-high: the most renowned teacher at the university from Padua, for example, received 700 gold forints a year and also a house of his own after moving to Pécs. Most of the students who graduated from Pécs managed to achieve enviable careers in Europe, despite the fact that at the time the students were known all over the world for their unbridled revelry. The turbulent periods of history interrupted the university’s success story for a while, but later the St. Elizabeth University of Bratislava was relocated to Pécs and the city became a centre of science again. Since then, the University of Pécs has been working with the largest number of students in the country and, in addition to Hungarian students, has almost 3,000 foreign students, most of them in the Faculty of General Medicine.

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Since every capable pasha had at least one bath, Gazi Kasim was no exception: you can still find the washbasins of his bath in the now Catholic Downtown Candlemas Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, i.e. in the Mosque of Pasha Qasim. And what are the basins used for today? Yes, you are right, even today there is water in them: holy water. The Bartholomew Church, built in the 13th century, was probably the foundation of the mosque that Pasha Gazi Kasim had built from the hefty sale price he allegedly received for a Hungarian Christian slave. The cathedral mosque was built facing away from Széchenyi Square to align with Mecca. Albeit faded, quotations from the Koran can still be read on the inner walls of the building, and one can see the prayer niche, the mihrab, also facing east.

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The 200-year-old Episcopal Library of Pécs surely has some record of the Tettye tale, too. “A new library is flourishing here, full of methodically arranged science. And it is also important that everything is free for everyone.” - writes Ferenc Faludi about the library named after György Klimo, Bishop of Pécs. The library was free of charge for everyone thirsting knowledge from the time of its foundation. At that time it was very much a sign of a progressive spirit. The bishop also set in stone a Latin-language library code, which did not care about wealth or origin, but forbade the ‘idiota’ or illiterate, the ‘famulus iners’ or dangerous skivers, and did not show mercy to the ‘fabulatorok’ or gossips.

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Gladiators, Vestal Virgins, fighters from ancient and medieval times, jugglers, fire dancers, and giant dragons. This is no longer time travel or a fairytale legend because you are in the present at the internationally renowned Zsolnay Light Festival.

Fantasy, imagined future, limitlessness, and light painting colour the almost 2000-year-old past of the city on an area of more than 10,000m².

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You are in 1973 more than 600 meters high up on one of the peaks of the Mecsek Mountains, on top of the television and observation tower on the Misina, just as its building is being finished. The treasure chest will not send you back 200 million years right now, instead, please walk down to the level of the tower café to meet the oldest and most famous dinosaur in Hungary, the Komlosaurus. The fossilized dinosaur eggs found during coal mining in the Mecsek prove that the lush vegetation here was a rich source of food for smaller dinosaurs. The approximately 1 to 2-metre high Komlosaurus walked on its 12 to 18 centimetre hind feet, which had 3 toes, and it was able to take 60 to 70 centimetres long steps when this landscape looked completely different from what it does now.

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