M1 — Zegzugos tortenetek
20260920 053000 UTC
293 transcript segments
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[00:01:33] and the
[00:06:39] Zebegeny,
[00:06:43] those German settlers cried out, who arrived in
[00:06:46] Hungary at the beginning of the 18th century,
[00:06:49] to find a new home along the Danube.
[00:06:52] Although there is a written
[00:06:56] record from the 13th century that mentions
[00:07:00] a convent called Cebeguen in the Mill Stream
[00:07:03] Valley, and this could be the explanation for the name of the
[00:07:07] settlement as well. Szövegény,
[00:07:10] Zebegény, neither in size
[00:07:13] nor in the number of its inhabitants does it differ from other Hungarian
[00:07:16] settlements, unless in that, thanks to its unparalleled
[00:07:20] environmental beauty, it has deservedly
[00:07:24] become one of the country's most well-known settlements.
[00:07:26] The two
[00:07:29] streets were built next to the stream,
[00:07:32] one is the current Árpád Street, and behind me
[00:07:35] it was originally called Erzsébet Street,
[00:07:39] today Szőnyi Street. and Bartóki Street, we have to say that originally there were no
[00:07:43] street names in the village,
[00:07:47] only numbers, house numbers existed, right
[00:07:50] until the Millennium.
[00:07:52] The houses probably got their
[00:07:55] numbers in the order of construction,
[00:07:58] because it is numbered quite strangely according to
[00:08:01] old maps, and when the streets got names,
[00:08:05] by then there were already several streets, not just these two streets,
[00:08:09] even then, the old house numbering remained for a very long time,
[00:08:13] so the continuous house numbering,
[00:08:15] the original village, so these two streets were, and
[00:08:19] the current main square, of course there was no
[00:08:23] church on it yet.
[00:08:29] The church has a very interesting history, the
[00:08:32] very small church of Zebegény had outgrown it, and in the
[00:08:36] mid-1800s, the question of building a new
[00:08:39] church arose. By the second half of the
[00:08:43] 80s, the village already had a finished plan,
[00:08:46] a collection started for the construction of the new church,
[00:08:49] they found that young architect, Károly Kós,
[00:08:53] Béla Jánszky, who designed the
[00:08:56] Ebegény church. This was a unique plan in its own
[00:09:00] right, because the young Károly Kós, then 26 years old, and
[00:09:03] this young team were able to realize a unique
[00:09:06] initial work of 20th century Hungarian
[00:09:09] church architecture here.
[00:09:35] Compared to the original plans, almost no changes were made, it was realized exactly as the young architects had planned it. They created one of the most beautiful interiors of Hungarian Art Nouveau in the church.
[00:09:39] The pictures have this
[00:09:57] unifying idea behind
[00:10:00] them, the most important thing here, of course, is that
[00:10:04] we enter through the
[00:10:07] triumphal arch, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross,
[00:10:10] in the Middle Ages it was the... rule, perhaps,
[00:10:14] or custom, that the Holy Trinity, our greatest
[00:10:17] mystery of faith, had to be placed before the
[00:10:20] faithful. On the triumphal arch, the Father, the Son, and the
[00:10:24] Holy Spirit. "represented in human form,
[00:10:27] Jesus Christ crucified, how much the Father raises him above the world.
[00:10:31] On the left side is the
[00:10:36] beginning, you know,
[00:10:39] it was painted in 1913, they went back
[00:10:42] in history 1600
[00:10:45] years, when a Roman emperor named Constantine,
[00:10:48] or rather at that time only
[00:10:51] a general, and before a battle a shining cross."
[00:10:55] in front of the vault of heaven, that in this
[00:10:58] sign you shall conquer. He takes this as a divine
[00:11:01] revelation, they paint it, I say, on the shields of the soldiers,
[00:11:04] on their clothes, he achieves victory, becomes
[00:11:07] emperor, and makes the Christian religion free in the
[00:11:11] Roman Empire, where for 300
[00:11:14] years it was not only forbidden, but also persecuted. On the other
[00:11:18] side, again this long large panel painting, Emperor Constantine's
[00:11:22] mother, Empress Helena,
[00:11:26] in Hungarian Empress Ilona, who
[00:11:28] in 320 in Jerusalem on
[00:11:31] Calvary, finds the holy
[00:11:33] cross.
[00:11:37] They carry the idea further, above the altar, which
[00:11:41] now originally didn't stand where it stands
[00:11:44] now, 10 angels, in such an oval
[00:11:48] arrangement, carry the instruments of Jesus'
[00:11:51] suffering, the inner sanctuary. and
[00:11:55] there that lonely cross inside the dome
[00:11:59] signifies the ultimate victory of the cross, so it is thus complete
[00:12:03] and, well, dogmatically also very
[00:12:07] beautifully resolved, the idea of the paintings.
[00:12:31] a small bridge leads across to the former Erzsébet, now
[00:12:34] Szőnyi István Street, named after a world-famous Hungarian painter.
[00:12:38] Here the road forks,
[00:12:46] we can choose the path
[00:12:49] along the stream or the
[00:12:53] footpath ascending to Calvary Hill. The
[00:12:56] "slope that rises
[00:13:01] Before the church designed by Kóskároj was built. Indeed,
[00:13:05] this was where the village's church was. This is actually
[00:13:08] Calvary Hill, and at the bottom of it, a tiny
[00:13:12] little building was built in front of a small cave
[00:13:15] opening, which perhaps we could say was the part
[00:13:18] of the church where the faithful took
[00:13:21] their place, and this small cave was
[00:13:25] the sanctuary. Then when the
[00:13:28] church was built, of course there was no need for it, the small
[00:13:31] building in front of it was demolished. We don't
[00:13:34] know when the church was built, or when it was
[00:13:38] first used as a church, but in our
[00:13:41] current church there is a bell, which
[00:13:45] is unfortunately cracked, with an inscription from
[00:13:48] 1747, and this was the bell of this small
[00:13:52] church, and inside the chapel,
[00:13:55] there is a relief depicting the Holy Trinity
[00:13:59] and the Coronation of the Virgin Mary, it's a very
[00:14:02] beautiful carving, we don't know who
[00:14:06] created it, according to some versions it was a Hermit,
[00:14:10] who lived in this cave, and
[00:14:12] perhaps, well, perhaps this
[00:14:16] beggar, who certainly for a little food, carried out,
[00:14:20] let's say, sacristan
[00:14:21] duties.
[00:14:30] The creator of the National Flag movement was the pain of
[00:14:33] Trianon, and wanted to strengthen the sense of belonging
[00:14:36] of the torn nation in the members
[00:14:39] of the National community. In the
[00:14:42] 1930s of the last century, almost every
[00:14:45] self-respecting locality erected a national flag.
[00:14:49] The people of Zebegény decided quite late, in 1935,
[00:14:53] that Zebegény also wanted to erect
[00:14:56] a national flag, they chose this wonderful
[00:14:59] place, it was previously called Bald Hill, it was an
[00:15:02] empty, flat area, and from here you can see
[00:15:06] the annexed territories, as we already see
[00:15:10] the mountains of Slovakia on the other
[00:15:13] side of the Danube, a movement started, it was specifically
[00:15:16] the Zebegény folk song group, who
[00:15:19] compiled subscription lists, and looked for an
[00:15:22] architect, Géza Maróti. He was commissioned in '35
[00:15:26] to design this national flag and the
[00:15:29] monument. Géza Maróti was very happy, because he was a
[00:15:33] passionate architect and sculptor, so he felt
[00:15:36] very bad without work, and then he started
[00:15:39] working on the design, he designed
[00:15:43] a special World War I monument, he didn't erect
[00:15:46] a column, not a statue, but a
[00:15:49] garden, a mystical garden, he named this
[00:15:52] on the blueprint the Garden
[00:15:54] of Heroes,
[00:16:00] it was half-finished by '38, it was not completely
[00:16:04] finished, Géza Maróti's dream was not realized.
[00:16:07] "They left the columns half-finished, they didn't put the double
[00:16:11] crosses on them, but in '38 there was a big
[00:16:13] ceremony when they inaugurated this
[00:16:17] area, the architect was not invited anymore. After '45,
[00:16:21] the fate of the national flags became very sad in
[00:16:24] Hungary, because almost all national flags were demolished. The
[00:16:27] Zebegény one was saved because there were
[00:16:30] council members who thought that it would be complicated
[00:16:34] to carry all these stones away from here, I guess,
[00:16:37] and they converted this into a lookout point, and then it was
[00:16:40] also possible to erase from people's
[00:16:44] memories what kind of place this was, this place was not named,
[00:16:48] this Zebegény lookout point, and then newer
[00:16:51] generations came, and we came here, and there is such a
[00:16:55] special atmosphere about this place, because it was very, very well
[00:16:58] chosen where it would be built, and then this Zebegény
[00:17:02] lookout point, why the columns are there
[00:17:04] and everything, everything was so hazy and
[00:17:08] foggy, regime change, that is,
[00:17:12] in 1996,
[00:17:15] the place got its name back, then the plaque was placed
[00:17:19] here, which stated that this is the
[00:17:22] national flag, and a heroic monument built by
[00:17:26] Géza Maróti.
[00:17:30] In Calvary Hill, that small baroque chapel was built,
[00:17:34] which Borbála Coller had built in memory of her son.
[00:17:52] We walk down along the stations to the famous Zebegény
[00:17:56] cemetery, immortalized by painters.
[00:17:58] Here István Szőnyi and the other
[00:18:19] members of the family were laid to
[00:18:23] rest.
[00:18:39] Hungarians, Slovaks, and Germans lived side by side
[00:18:42] in tolerance and great poverty in this
[00:18:45] area. Many worked in the surrounding mines,
[00:18:49] and since the soil was quite
[00:18:52] poor, they grew vegetables and fruits. Here
[00:18:56] you can see the remains of the original row of cellars,
[00:19:00] unfortunately it's really just remains, holiday homes, these are
[00:19:04] more or less, but the reason for this is that during
[00:19:07] the phylloxera, the vines perished, and well, it probably
[00:19:11] wasn't very good quality wine, because the conditions are not
[00:19:15] suitable, and that's probably why it wasn't replanted, so this
[00:19:19] row of cellars preserves the memory of the fact that there was once viticulture
[00:19:22] here.
[00:19:31] My father bought this property 40 years
[00:19:35] ago, we traveled the country together, because he
[00:19:38] specifically wanted to buy a suitable building
[00:19:41] for museum purposes, he felt
[00:19:44] here for the first time that he could
[00:19:47] realize the opening of the museum, which
[00:19:50] happened 26 years ago, he worked as a captain
[00:19:53] in shipping, and
[00:19:57] in fact, when he saw
[00:19:59] that Hungarian shipping was doomed to
[00:20:03] liquidation, he realized... "that even if only in pieces,
[00:20:08] they had to collect, they had to save
[00:20:11] something from these, certain things could not be
[00:20:15] brought from abroad in original form, for example, the Indian
[00:20:18] totem poles, so he, in order to be able to
[00:20:21] show them from pictures, drawings, carved them here
[00:20:24] at home, and he started
[00:20:27] building ships because he also built
[00:20:30] the history of shipping from tree trunks, that was
[00:20:34] already consciously for the museum,
[00:20:38] but during longer, in quotes,
[00:20:42] boring voyages, he also creatively
[00:20:45] spent these periods by trying
[00:20:48] out his manual dexterity.
[00:21:17] From the late 1800s, the Budapest middle class
[00:21:21] discovered the beauties of Zebegény. Every summer,
[00:21:24] dozens of families appeared in the small
[00:21:28] Danube village. Thanks to his friends, that's how József
[00:21:31] Bartóki, a politician and writer, came to Zebegény,
[00:21:34] who not only rented, but also bought
[00:21:38] property in Erzsébet Street. Later,
[00:21:41] he gave this property with its garden
[00:21:44] to his daughter, Melinda, and his son-in-law, István Szőnyi.
[00:21:48] He often laughed and mentioned
[00:21:52] that this was the most expensive model.
[00:21:56] He bought the house in 1905. This was exactly
[00:21:59] the notable period of Zebegény, when they also started
[00:22:02] building the church, and it was precisely József Bartóki
[00:22:06] who brought the very young Károly Kós here
[00:22:10] to design the church. And the small house was most
[00:22:13] likely converted according to Károly Kós's
[00:22:16] instructions to what we see now.
[00:22:20] "it stands out from the other houses in Zebegény. Szőnyi
[00:22:24] lived and worked in this house from 1924 until
[00:22:28] his death. His art fully blossomed
[00:22:31] here, his painting was influenced
[00:22:35] by the magically beautiful landscape and the people
[00:22:38] living in the village. Here is this beautiful place, you
[00:22:42] live beautifully here, and then they started, well, cows,
[00:22:45] a cow and, I don't know, horses and chickens, I don't
[00:22:49] know how to get them. Because they were going to farm now,
[00:22:52] they had no idea how, the chickens
[00:22:55] died, then the cow
[00:22:58] went out, luckily every morning they took it to graze
[00:23:01] with the herd of cows, so that was
[00:23:05] taken care of, at least there was milk for the children, so we lived here
[00:23:09] until I was six
[00:23:12] years old.
[00:23:16] This is what we called Painters' Street, because near
[00:23:20] Szőnyi, they rented houses for the summer,
[00:23:23] or they even bought some, like for Vasarely, but the
[00:23:27] others primarily stayed in private
[00:23:30] houses, from spring to autumn, they worked here, they didn't have
[00:23:33] joint appearances, so they didn't present themselves collectively
[00:23:37] under the name of the Zebegény artist colony, but
[00:23:39] they regularly came over to the Szőnyi house
[00:23:43] as guests, Szőnyiné was known
[00:23:47] for gladly hosting the
[00:23:50] members of the artist colony,
[00:23:53] primarily on St. Stephen's Day, or rather they came to greet
[00:23:57] István, and then this small veranda could accommodate
[00:24:01] 40, 50, 60 people.
[00:24:18] Next to us was a young pianist, who
[00:24:21] studied at the music academy and lived with his mother, all
[00:24:24] day long piano music was heard, in the next house was
[00:24:28] Uncle Kati, or rather Aunt
[00:24:31] Kati, who
[00:24:33] was a real pub, a real
[00:24:37] pub, where people went in, drank a beer, or a glass
[00:24:41] of wine, but the painters, every
[00:24:43] evening there was a covered part, and they camped
[00:24:47] there nicely, and all these...
[00:24:50] "from Vasarely
[00:24:52] to the Elekfis and, well, Róbert Berény,
[00:24:56] everyone was there, and of course my father,
[00:25:00] and there were huge conversations when
[00:25:03] we, the children, sometimes tried to listen
[00:25:06] to what they were talking about, for example, one big topic
[00:25:12] finish line first, Achilles or the tortoise?"
[00:25:14] béka?"
[00:25:19] "
[00:25:27] "Zebegény always remained the summer and holiday
[00:25:31] wonderful life, because indeed
[00:25:34] there was such an incredibly great life here, and the
[00:25:38] children were free in the garden,
[00:25:41] and whenever we could,
[00:25:45] we immediately ran up here, for example, when
[00:25:48] my, uhm..." dear husband,
[00:25:52] who later became my husband, Mátyás Triznya, started
[00:25:55] courting me when I was 17-18
[00:25:58] years old, then he came up here.