SHAPE SHIFTING RIVER The Danube takes its character from the people and places it passes on its 1,770-mile course
10 SMITHSONIAN JOURNEYS SUMMER 2016
“The Danube River Project” explores the waterway using underwater equipment to show scenes—like this one of Budapest—partly above and partly below the surface. ANDREAS MÜLLER-POHLE, MUELLERPOHLE.NET
KG-IMAGES
12 SMITHSONIAN JOURNEYS SUMMER 2016
By Nick Thorpe
T
he Danube has many faces. In Roman sculpture, it is distinctly male, represented as the wise, bearded river god Danubius. But elsewhere the river is female, an embodiment of grace and beauty. A statue at the
river’s source, in the town of Donaueschingen in Germany’s Black Forest, depicts her as a young maiden standing next to her mother, looking wistfully downstream. The mother—representing here the Baar, a plateau whose waters feed the Danube—shows her daughter the direction she must follow, to the east. Flowing, misted, shape-shifting, the Danube takes its character from the people and places it passes on its 1,770-mile course. The river wears different colors, depending on the eye of the beholder. Johann Strauss II composed “The Blue Danube” waltz in 1866, to lift his fellow Austrians out of the gloom that descended on the country after losing the Seven Weeks’ War with Prussia. For the Bulgarians, it’s the White Danube. A main tributary, the Tisza, rises in Ukraine as two rivers—the Black and the White Tisza—while sand stirred up along the riverbed prompts the Hungarians to call it the Blonde Tisza. On a certain stretch of the Danube near Ram in Serbia, I saw its waters turn pure silver. This is a broad-minded, multicultural river. It brushes against ten countries and drains another nine. (By contrast, another mighty river, the Volga, is longer than the Danube at 2,290 miles, but crosses and drains just Russia.) Since the beginning of historical time, traders and migrants, mercenaries and adventurers have followed the Danube into the heart of the continent, carry-
A detail from a relief
ing goods, ideas, and innovations.
depicting scenes of the
The arts of metallurgy and agriculture, brought to Europe by
Roman Emperor Trajan’s
settlers from Anatolia around 5000 b.c., traveled upriver. Later
military campaigns
the Turks brought new trees, flowers, fruits, and vegetables to
against the Dacians in the
the lands they conquered in eastern Europe. Western ambassa-
2nd century a.d. shows
dors in Constantinople, astonished by the gardens there, gath-
Danubius, the river god of
ered seeds and bulbs and carried them home. The most famous
the Danube. Elsewhere, the
such import was the tulip.
river is depicted in female
The Turks also brought chili peppers, which spread from
form—an embodiment of
the New World through the Ottoman Empire in the 16th
grace and beauty.
century to Hungary, where they were used to make paprika. When
SUMMER 2016 SMITHSONIAN JOURNEYS 13
Hungarian chemist Albert Szent-Györgyi discovered ascorbic acid (vitamin C) in the early 1930s, he extracted it from peppers planted by the Ottomans. There is now a popular paprika museum beside the Danube in the Hungarian town of Kalocsa. In the 19th century, Bulgarian gardeners grew peppers on a large scale, and also introduced melons, pumpkins, and cauliflower to Hungary. At Csepel harbor in Budapest, a “Dock of the Bulgarian Gardeners” is named in their honor. Those who live along the Danube’s banks, or ply its waters, try to gauge its temperament. The river takes so long to gather melting mountain snows—from Albania in the south to Switzerland in the west, and above all from the horseshoe -shaped Carpathians in the center and east—that its waters are usually highest in summer. The fishermen of the Szigetköz region of Hungary used to say that if there is fog on the Danube in March, there will be floods 100 days later, at harvest time. 14 SMITHSONIAN JOURNEYS SUMMER 2016
(CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE) ILLUSTRATION: THE NICOLAS M. SALGO COLLECTION, BRIDGEMAN; PHOTOS: AKOS STILLER; TIMOTHY FADEK
(Clockwise from left) A
Yet the capriciousness of the river should not be
Bulgaria. To study his maps today is to discover the
landscape showing Pest
underestimated. Mild much of the year, it can turn
gurgling hinterland which gave birth to the river
and Buda on either side of
wild unexpectedly.
eons ago. Today’s Danube, straightened to improve
“Contrary to our expectations, the wind did
shipping and reduce flooding in the 19th and 20th
panoramic view of modern
not go down with the sun,” wrote the American
centuries, is sterner, with a more singular sense
Budapest from Gellért Hill;
author Algernon Blackwood, whose short story
of purpose.
the nightclub Blaywatch,
“The Willows” depicts a canoeing trip downriver of
The hydroelectric energy generated by the
located on a floating barge
Bratislava in the early 1900s. “It seemed to increase
upper Danube in Germany and Austria played a
near the spot where the
with the darkness, howling overhead and shaking
vital part in the industrial recovery of both coun-
Sava River meets the
the willows round us like straws. Curious sounds
tries after the Second World War. (Nearly 60 dams
Danube in Belgrade, Serbia.
accompanied it sometimes, like the explosion
are built along the first 600 miles of the Danube
of heavy guns, and it fell upon the water and the
in Austria and Germany.) But the economic ben-
island in great flat blows of immense power. It
efits of hydropower entailed environmental costs.
made me think of the sounds a planet must make,
In the 21st century, a new focus is on repairing the
could we only hear it, driving along through space.”
damage.
the Danube in the 1870s; a
In 1726, the Habsburg general and geographer
In the Wachau Valley, between Melk and
Count Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli published a mag-
Krems in Austria, a local entrepreneur named
nificent investigation of the geography and natural
Josef Fischer breeds the rare Huchen, the Danube
sciences of the Danube, mapping every twist in the
salmon. Tanks in his garden contain about 10,000
river’s course from its source all the way to Ruse in
glimmering fish, including many just a few months SUMMER 2016 SMITHSONIAN JOURNEYS 15
Low clouds drift over the Danube and around the rocky cliffs and outcrops of the Iron Gates gorge in Djerdap National Park, Serbia. WWE/SMIT/NPL, MINDEN PICTURES
old and others who sired them all. What started as
survived in small numbers in the main river. The
(Clockwise from above)
a hobby—Fischer earns his living as a winemaker—
restoration of the oxbow provided a safe place, at
Sunrise among the reeds
now draws most of his enthusiasm. There’s just
last, for the fish to multiply.
in the Danube flood plain,
one downside, he says: He loves his fish so much he can’t eat them anymore.
Four capital cities, Vienna, Belgrade, Bratislava,
lower Austria; a flock of
and Budapest, stand beside or astride the Danube.
eastern white pelicans
Fischer now reintroduces his fish to the Danube
In the Naschmarkt, the traditional market of
(Pelecanus onocrotalus)
instead, presenting new difficulties. The salmon
Vienna, many of the vendors, as well as the goods
take flight in late spring
need to migrate, and their way upstream is blocked
for sale, have made their way upriver from the
near the Danube Delta in
by dams. One solution under consideration in
east. A man from Samarkand sells wanderbrot, a
Romania; a color engraving
many places, already tried successfully at Melk, is
bread or cake made with dried fruits and nuts.
of the Danube, 1821.
to carve a channel through the bank next to the
There are wines from Romania and Bulgaria, and
dam, allowing the fish an alternative route. Because
caviar from the Caspian Sea. (In Roman times,
of the difference in the height of the water, the
when sturgeon were plentiful in the Danube, caviar
engineering challenge is to slow the river enough
was a poor man’s food. Now it sells for thousands of
to give the fish a chance to fight the current.
dollars a pound.)
Nearby at Schönbühel, an oxbow in the river
The museums of Novi Sad and Belgrade, over-
has been restored. Six weeks after that project was
looking the Danube in Serbia, are richly endowed
completed in 2006, nearly 40 species of fish were
with swords used in the battles between Christian
counted in this sidearm of the river that had been
Europe and the Ottoman Empire. The alliances
starved of water for a hundred years. The fish had
between sultans and kings, both by marriage and
18 SMITHSONIAN JOURNEYS SUMMER 2016
agreement, receive less mention. Serbia in the 15th century struggled to keep its independence between the powerful Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary. Around 1432 the Serbian despot Durad Brankovic married his younger daughter Katarina to Ulrich II of Celje, a close ally of the Hungarians. Three years later he sent his older daughter Mara to marry the Turkish Sultan Murad II. That won him just five years of peace. Downriver from Belgrade—at Vinča, Lepenski Vir, and Kladovo—the traces of astonishing Copper Age civilizations of the lower Danube Valley are carefully preserved in figurines and animalheaded pots. Archaeologists are still trying to decipher symbols and letters—evidence of what some regard as a “Danube script,” older than Sumerian—found carved into stones or painted on pots in the cliffs at Vinča. At Lepenski Vir, 54 huge egg-shaped stones carved with human or fishlike features were discovered in the 1960s by (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) REINHARD GOLEBIOWSKI & GERALD NAVARA, ANZENBERGER/REDUX; MINDEN PICTURES; THE GRANGER COLLECTION, NY
SUMMER 2016 SMITHSONIAN JOURNEYS 19
ATLAS OF EATING
The glory of goulash a simple stew made by browning
By Rachel Laudan
A
the meat in lard and onions, adding few miles before the Danube
water and, if available, black
reaches Budapest, the river
pepper. At some point, they began
turns to the south, flowing
substituting coarsely ground dried
parallel to one of its mightiest
red chilies from home gardens for
tributaries, the Tisza, some 70
the pepper. In the villages, some
miles to the east. Between them
unknown innovator had rediscovered
lies the heartland of the Great
what was already known in the
Hungarian Plain. Without natural
Americas, that chilies could be dried,
barriers, this wild grassland was
crushed underfoot, and pounded
for most of history a passage for
in a mortar. By the end of the 18th
warriors: first the Huns, then the
century, travelers were commenting
Mongols, and later the Turks, who
on this rough, spicy peasant dish
occupied it for 150 years until they
river fish soups, and used it in
Goulash began as a
that left a pleasant warmth in the
were finally expelled in 1699. Along
abundance in their new national
humble soup-stew.
stomach. Since the Hungarian
the tense border zone, they left a
dish, goulash.
Hungarian herdsmen
term for herdsmen was gulyás, the
—like this one (right)
travelers called this herdsmen’s meat,or gulyás hús.
culinary legacy: coffee and coffee
The invention of goulash began
shops, the thin-layered pastry
with one of the humblest groups in
photographed in 1978—
now known as strudel, and chili
Hungarian society, the cowherds,
cooked it over an open fire
Those wealthy and educated
plants. Recently introduced from
according to the distinguished
on the plain. The addition
enough to write about their travels
the Americas, probably Mexico,
Hungarian ethnologist Eszter Kisbán.
of refined varieties of
came from the other end of the
chilies had delicate flowers and
Groups of five or six single men, with
paprika from ground red
social spectrum, the aristocracy.
hollow berries that ripened from
their dogs and a couple of horses to
chilies made the dish an
The sale of cattle, driven to distant
green to shades of yellow and red.
pull their supply cart, spent months
international staple.
markets in Vienna, Venice, and
Nobles grew them as ornamentals
or even a year at a time out on the
northern Germany, often provided
in their walled gardens, whence
plains tending tall, slender gray
much of the nobles’ income. But
they gradually made their way to
cattle with long upturned horns.
cowherd’s meat, while a novelty to
the garden plots of peasants. By
They cooked for themselves in
try on the plains or when hunting,
the end of the 19th century, the
large cauldrons slung from a pole
was no more likely to appear on
Hungarians had bred new varieties
supported by posts over an open
their tables than chuck wagon
of chilies, found ways to process
fire, using simple, nonperishable
cuisine was to be on a dinner party
them, and created their defining
supplies: millet, lard, bacon, onions,
menu in New York or San Francisco.
spice, paprika. They sprinkled the
salt, and sometimes black pepper.
In the grand castles on their
red powder on bread and lard, or
If one of the cattle died or was
estates or their town houses in
on fresh cheese, added it to their
slaughtered, the cowherds would
Budapest or Vienna, the aristocrats
salami, introduced it into their
feast on a rare dish of fresh meat,
dined on a cosmopolitan haute
42 SMITHSONIAN JOURNEYS SUMMER 2016
(ABOVE) LASZLO BALOGH, REUTERS; (OPPOSITE) PAUL ALMASY, AKG IMAGES
processing could not produce
AE
enough paprika for the market. In 1867, Hungary was granted greater autonomy, and the new government encouraged economic development. The cowherds
cuisine prepared by French-trained
dwindled in number as the plains
chefs and conversed over dinner in
were transformed from grazing
German, French, or Italian.
fields to rich farmland. Before
It was the far less wealthy
long, Hungary was producing the
petty nobility who paved the way
finest white flour in the world for
for goulash’s ascent up the social
the delicate pastries of Budapest
scale. Resentful that they were
and Vienna, thanks to improved
now ruled by the Habsburg dynasty
methods of milling. Hungarian
and irritated that German was the
wines from new vineyards and
official language, they emphasized
fruit brandies became famous
their Magyar (Hungarian) customs.
across Europe. Chili peppers
Like other nationalist movements
flourished in the hot summers
that emerged in the early 19th
of the southernmost parts of
century, they took up the romantic
the Hungarian plain, particularly
vision of a nation’s essence
around the ancient towns of
being expressed in its language,
Szeged and Kalocsa. Growers
its landscape, and its peasant
carefully transplanted seedlings
culture. Writers began publishing
in the spring, protected them from
newspapers in Hungarian, collecting
sparrows and pigeons, weeded and
folk tales, and authoring plays
watered them, and then harvested
and poems about their country’s
the individual chili pods as they
glorious past. Composers adopted
began ripening in early September.
the rhythm of the peasant dance,
Girls armed with six-inch steel
the csárdás, which became
needles threaded the pods on
respectable in urban ballrooms.
strings six to eight feet long before
Painters depicted noble herdsmen
garlanding them on racks and house
with their wide trousers, hats with
fronts to dry until the seeds rattled.
upturned brims, and embroidered waistcoats.
Then it was the turn of the into humbler kitchens when black
A chef finishes goulash
processors, whose job was to
pepper soared in price in 1806 after
with Hungarian paprika
reduce the tough chili skin to a
vigorous, red, utterly Hungarian
a Napoleonic embargo on the import
at Budapest’s Bestia
powder. The külü, a heavy beam on
goulash began creeping into
of foreign goods to the Continent.
restaurant. Travelers can
a fulcrum, replaced foot treading,
urban kitchens, cookbooks, and
The final step in the dish’s adoption
choose from many types
increasing the output of a single
restaurants in the 1830s, despite
as a national symbol, now under
of paprika at a souvenir
worker to 20 pounds of spice a
hostesses’ fears that it was
the peasant name pörkölt, came
market (opposite) or
day. This, in turn, was replaced by
too crude for ladies. It gradually
during the difficult years following a
buy jars of homemade
grindstones, which heated the
displaced the standard pallid
failed revolution in 1848-49, when
spice from town-market
paprika sufficiently to melt the oil
sauerkraut with meat (similar to
Hungary was firmly under the heel of
vendors.
in the seeds. It coated the powder
the French choucroute), common
the Habsburg emperor.
So it is scarcely surprising that
to all of central Europe. This complemented its earlier entry
Now the problem was supply. Peasant gardens and hand
44 SMITHSONIAN JOURNEYS SUMMER 2016
from the ground pods, preserving its much sought after bright red color. By the beginning of the 20th
(ABOVE) AKOS STILLER; (OPPOSITE) RÓBERT LÁSZLÓ BÁCSI
Paprika buying guide
century, 12 to 15 paprika mills
who came following the failed
lined the banks of the Tisza River
revolution of 1848. Later, when
in Szeged. Customer demand for a
Hungarians too poor to have
milder—but still colorful—spice was
enjoyed such a rich meaty stew in
satisfied when János and Balász
their home country arrived in the
C
Pálffy, two smiths in Szeged who
United States and Canada in the
powder is the result. Paprika is only one of a large number
had toured the factories of Western
early 20th century, they discovered
of such powders, including cayenne pepper; pimentón
Europe, invented a machine to split
that goulash was widely known.
from Spain; guajillo, ancho, pasilla, and other powders from
the dried peppers and remove the
By 1969, a Gallup Poll found that
Mexico; and even good old American chili powder. They are
white ribs and seeds, the source of
goulash was one of the five most
not interchangeable: pimentón is smoked, cayenne is hot,
the chilies’ heat.
popular meat dishes in the U.S.
Mexican powders have distinct flavors, and American chili
hilies come in dozens of varieties, each with a distinct color and flavor. When they are dried and ground, chili
With this new Szeged “noble
Back in Hungary, the choice of
powder contains considerable amounts of ground cumin. In all
sweet” paprika, dishes could be
paprika as the national seasoning
cases, the quality of the chili, the care taken in processing, and
created that satisfied even the
seemed wholly justified when
freshness determine how good the powder will be.
refined tastes of the aristocracy,
Albert Szent-Györgyi, a professor at
To buy paprika in Budapest, the Central Market Hall (Nagy
especially when made with veal
the University of Szeged who came
Vásárcsarnok) on the Pest side of the Szabadság Bridge is well
or then-prestigious chicken, and
from a noble Hungarian family,
worth a visit. With its three levels of stalls and stands flooded
softened with the addition of
was awarded the 1937 Nobel
with light from soaring windows, it is a cathedral to food. Those
sour cream. France’s Auguste
Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
in the know suggest that best of all are the jars of homemade
Escoffier, who was happy to be
Having established the chemistry
paprika offered by small vendors in this and other markets. Also
called “the king of chefs and the
of vitamin C, he analyzed paprika
intriguing are the museums dedicated to the history of paprika
chef to kings,” imported paprika
in Kalocsa and Szeged, each about a
from Szeged and served Goulash
two-hour day trip from Budapest.
à la Hongroise in Monte Carlo in
The paprika you are most likely to
1879. When Escoffier included
encounter in the United States, often
the recipe in his 1904 Le Guide
found in a distinctive can decorated
Culinaire, a worldwide reference, he
with the red, green, and white colors
ensured its place in the fine dining
of the Hungarian flag, is the light
traditions of Europe. Károly Gundel,
red “noble sweet” (édes nemes). It
one of Hungary’s most esteemed
comes from a mild variety of chili.
chefs, the owner of the celebrated
Paprika scorches easily, so to use it
Gundel’s in Budapest, and a mentor
in goulash, fry your onions in the oil or
to later generations of cooks,
fat of your choice—lard if you want
included not one but many variants
true Hungarian flavor—allow it to
in his cookbooks. By the end of the
grown and processed just a short
cool, add the paprika, and stir. Then add your other ingredients
19th century, goulash was firmly in
distance from his office and
and water before returning the pot to the heat.
the international lexicon of cookery
continued his research using the
for beef stew seasoned with
vitamin-C-loaded spice. No wonder
quality” (különleges) and “delicate” (csemege) are excellent
paprika—except, oddly, in Hungary
George Lang, the Hungarian-
mild grades. If, on the other hand, you want a paprika more
where the term “goulash” was
American director of the Café des
like the original used on the Hungarian plains, you might try
reserved for soups and “pörkölt”
Artistes in New York, who restored
a pungent Erős Pista (Strong Steven), a popular Hungarian
was used for the stew. Goulash had
Budapest’s Gundel restaurant
condiment. It is a coarser, hotter spice that still contains the
climbed to the highest social levels.
following the fall of communism,
capsaicin seeds. Or, if you like a smoky flavor, look for smoked
described paprika as being “to the
paprika (füstölt). Finally, paprika and goulash “creams,” the
more popular than in North America.
Hungarian cuisine as wit is to its
latter including onions, tomato purée, and flavorings, are now
It was probably introduced by the
conversation—not just a superficial
sold in tubes and jars. Édes on the label indicates it is a mild
first wave of Hungarian migrants,
garnish, but an integral element.” l
chili, erős a hotter one.
Nowhere did goulash become
Many other Hungarian varieties are available. “Special
—Rachel Laudan
SUMMER 2016 SMITHSONIAN JOURNEYS 45
46 SMITHSONIAN JOURNEYS SUMMER 2016
Glitter from a lost world Treasure found in a handful of prehistoric graves in Bulgaria is the first evidence of social hierarchy. What caused these ancient societies to suddenly disappear?
This gold appliquĂŠ, more than six millennia old, appears to be a bull but has buffalo-like horns. NATSIONALEN ISTORITCHESKI MUZEJ, SOFIA, BULGARIA; DE AGOSTINI PICTURE LIBRARY / A. DAGLI ORTI / BRIDGEMAN IMAGES ALL OTHER PHOTOS: VARNA REGIONAL MUSEUM OF HISTORY
By Andrew Curry
“P
erhaps you’d like to see the cemetery?” says archaeologist Vladimir Slavchev, catching me a bit off balance. We’re standing in the Varna Museum
of Archaeology, a three-story former girls’ school built of limestone and brick in the 19th century. Its collections span
millennia, from the tools of Stone Age farmers who first settled this seacoast near the mouth of the Danube to the statues and inscriptions of its prosperous days as a Roman port. But I’ve come for something specific, something that has made Varna known among archaeologists the world over. I’m here for the gold. ¶ Slavchev ushers me up a flight of worn stone stairs and into a dimly lit hall lined with glass display cases. At first I’m not sure where to look. There’s gold everywhere—11 pounds in all, representing most of the 13 pounds that were excavated between 1972 and 1991 from a single lakeside cemetery just a few miles from where we’re standing. There are pendants and bracelets, flat breastplates and tiny beads, stylized bulls and a sleek headpiece. Tucked away in a corner, there’s a broad, shallow clay bowl painted in zigzag stripes of gold dust and black, charcoal-based paint.
48 SMITHSONIAN JOURNEYS SUMMER 2016
A restorer from the Varna Museum of Archeology looks into rows of excavated graves in 1976, four years after archeologists discovered the prehistoric cemetery and erected a fence to protect it.
ANCIENT JEWELRY This pendant necklace of gold, carnelian, and Spondylus shell was found in a cenotaph, a grave with no human remains. Archeologists believe it hung from the neck of a woman during the late Copper Age. A typical female adornment, its white, red, and gold are a unique color combination that offers clues to the world’s oldest known social stratification.
50 SMITHSONIAN JOURNEYS SUMMER 2016
GILDED GRAVE The final resting place of a prosperous chief, who died in his 40s, was recreated exactly as archeologists found it, using field pictures, plans, and diary descriptions. Though the skeleton is a plastic replica, it is surrounded and adorned by remnants of the chief’s original bow and arrows, spear, and a tomahawk. He holds a gold-handled axe—a symbol of his power—and wears gold bangles, necklaces, and even a gold sheath for his penis. Gold appliqués once attached to his clothing encircle him.