Hosszúhetény
Hosszúhetény lies 16 kilometers from Pécs, in the southern stool of Eastern Mecsek in a valley of Mount Zengő and Mount Hármashegy. The settlement is located in a picturesque landscape. Two wonderful little mountain-villages Püspökszentlászló and Kisújbánya are also integral parts of Hosszúhetény and come under its civil administration.
People had their homes here as far back as the Stone Age and the village must have been a remarkable settlement of Pannonia in the Roman Age. This assumption is confirmed by the ruins of an excavated and reburied Roman villa in the outskirts of the village.
The parish was first mentioned as Villa Heten in the foundation document of the Benedictine Abbey of Pécsvárad in 1015. The village has got its present name „Hosszúhetény” after the expulsion of the Turks in the 17th century.
There a couple of explanations for the origin of the village’s name. According to one of these, after the settlement of the Hungarians in the 10th century, chief Hetény ruled in this territory and he had his head-quarters in the stool of Mount Zengő. (The monument of chief Hetény has been erected by the Munkácsy-awarded sculptor Gyula Bocz in one of the village’s parks).
Another assumption leads back to the number seve, or “seventh son” (in old Hungarian „hetény”). The prefix “hosszú” (meaning long) may refer to the expanse of the village.
The highest peak of Mecsek mountains, Mount Zengő (682 m) is a very popular target for hikers and tourists. This is the only territory in Hungary where you can find the incomparably beautiful blowing peonies.
In old times, the most people was taking up cultivation, or rearing domestic animals. The water of the creek “Daragó” flowing through the whole village was driving 21 mills till the beginning of the last century.
In 1782, coal mining started off in the Mecsek Mountains and from this time on, many miner families were settling down in the village. In the 70s, many of the residents from Püspökszentlászló and Kisújbánya also moved to Hosszúhetény.
Nowadays the number of the residents of Hosszúhetény is at about 3400, a significant number of people have their jobs in Pécs, but there are also some local small enterprises for public services.
The residents of Hosszúhetény are provided with a General Culture Centre serving also as elementary school and library, a nursery, full basic medical service, a senior club, a youth cellar club, home guard patrol and a couple of drugstores are available for the residents.
The building of the catholic chapel dedicated to Saint Nicolaus began in 1723 and ended in 1783; the internal walls are decorated by the frescos of Ernő Gebauer, artist of Pécs.
Our village keeps its traditions, has a colorful traditional wear, local folk songs, folk dance, vocabulary, as well as traditional rules and programs.
The folkdance group was founded in 1934 with the movement „Gyöngyösbokréta” (“beaded posy”). Having gathered a number of golden medals, it has turned into a nationwide famous folk ensemble by today.
The life of our village is enriched by an ensemble singing local folksongs, children choirs, several orchestras, excellent football and handball teams, as well as many other civil organizations and a flourishing rural tourism.
Also worth mentioning is the glass exhibition commemorating the glasshouse settlements Pusztabánya and Kisújbánya, the ethnic museum house representing the old everyday life of peasants living in this region and the barber’s shop bringing back the mood of the 1940s.
Püspökszentlászló is a dinky settlement in the landscape protection area of Eastern-Mecsek in the narrow valley of Zengő and Hármashegy.
The little village is a real paradise for hiking fans and an ideal spot for relaxing from the everyday rush.
According to the legend, Hungarian King Saint László was hunting here once and he searched for refuge from sudden stormy weather in one of the neighboring caves. Thanks to this event, he later built a little chapel which was the fundamental building of the village. Its name is first mentioned in an awarding document from the year 1235.
The name prefix Püspök (meaning “bishop”) points to the fact, that this land has been owned by the bishop of Pécs for centuries.
During the Turkish occupation the village went completely empty. The first German settlers came to the village around 1760. Due to its location on a steep hillside, the settlers could build their farmhouses only on one side of the road. The chapel and the bishop’s mansion built by count László Eszterházy, bishop of Pécs in 1797 are located at the end of the road of Püspökszentlászló. The wonderful building is surrounded by a mighty botanic garden founded by bishop Sámuel Hettyey. There are 25 different pine sorts and 80 sorts of other plants to the delight of visitors of the garden.
The village is under the administration of the Hosszúhetény Local Government with together 32 parcels and centuries old peasant houses either preserved in their original condition or newly restored. In the village we can still found some residents while some houses are used as holiday resorts or guesthouses for tourists.
Thanks to his firm belief and insistent organization efforts, Jesuit monk Jenő Vácz (1914-2003) has founded and built the so called “House for Arranging the Way of Life” in the middle of the village in 1995.
Today, this house is a home for programs promoting the initiation of spiritual opening, positive attitude to life, poise of mind and a rich life-style.
Thanks to its lucky location, the blissful cool weather and the varied flora, Püspökszentlászló – the rugged jewel of Southern Transdanubia – is nowadays a very popular holiday-village of the Mecsek mountains. Due to its quietness, the yearly celebrated patronal festival at the end of June, this village seems like a really mystic place.
Kisújbánya
Kisújbánya (“New Glasshouse”), also referred to as “Nova Vitriaria” was founded by Bavarian settlers from the Franken region in the 18th century owing to the fact, that the woods of Eastern Mecsek were abounding in beech trees, necessary for skimming. A material called “potash” is boiled from the beech ash and it is required for glass melting.
This glass melting industry required a huge lot of beeches and this is the reason why they had to find another territory. The new village was called “Pusztabánya” (Glasshouse).
“Kisújbánya” (New Glasshouse) is located in the middle of the Nature Protection District of Eastern Mecsek hills, in a picturesque beautiful valley. A creek is flowing through the village and there are several fountains to be found here.
The village’s tries to retain the image of a classical kraut settlement. Not only delighted the beautiful landscape but the sight of the traditionally built kraut houses are delightful for the visitors. The church was built for the honor of saint Martin in 1974.
A modest way of life was typical among the residents of this recluse woodland village. People were seeking self-sufficiency, built their mudhouses and equerries mostly of brick made by themselves.
They earned their living by stock farming, fabricating wooden tools and instruments even in the 1960s. Its aboriginals were moving off the fated settlement during two years at the beginning of the 1970s.
Many of them have later built their new homes in Hosszúhetény in exemplary close co-operation. Nowadays the old authentically restored houses in the old village are being used on one hand as weekend houses and on the other hand as home of more and more new residents.
A little converging fellowship has grown up in the village making hard efforts to preserve their inheritance.
From 2007 on, the village is part and a station of the Saint Martin European Cultural Route and a starting point of the Southern Transdanubian Pilgrimage Route (still under development). As for administration, Kisújbánya is part of the village of Hosszúhetény.
The ethnic museum-house
Until 2008, this house was the property of Árpád Bocz inhabitant of Hosszúhetény, who has been consciously collecting tools and instruments of the everyday life of peasants living in this region, such as articles for personal use, clothes and textiles. He also has been permanently extending his collection of ethnic objects during 40 years. He has bought the house for his ethnic museum in 1989. He has restored the old ruinous building with the farmyard into its original status und has equipped it with his ethnic collection.
From 2008, the ethnic museum-house is in the property of the village Hosszúhetény.
This house has got its national protection as an art relic of the Baka Family in the year of 1990. Recently it is the only house in Hosszúhetény, that shows the specialties of the ethnic construction of the region. The house itself, the roofed shed, the maize exec and the piggeries were built on a belt parcel by the Baka family in the years of 1860. The equerry was fabricated in the years of 1920. The house has an arcade on the run, has got a saddle roof covered with special tiles, and its gable is decorated with mortar ornaments.
The long equerry with wooden columns leads to the entrance of the two kitchens. To the left from the first kitchen with fireplace you can find the so-called “clean room”, and then two other rooms. The other kitchen can be entered either from the room or the equerry. Equipped with a free chimney and furnace, this kitchen has retained its original status and could be used even today. Representative pieces of ancient potteries, crockery of nearby settlement such as Pécsvárad, Mecseknádasd, Óbánya, Szászvár and Magyarhertelend can also be found here.
Especially precious are the goblet and the firewater bottle from the turn of the 18th and 19th century which are products of the ancient glassworks of the Eastern-Mecsek mountains.
In the ”clean room” of the house you can see the famous folk wear of Hosszúhetény, from the christening shirt to the funeral wear.
The building itself and the fixtures reflect the way how people lived in the old times.
You will find various agricultural tools and instruments in the roofed shed, such as ploughs, harrows, tools for livestock husbandry (double yokes, tools to prevent sucking of calves), tools of viniculture, e.g., wooden grape-squeezer mill, grape grinder, etc.
A unique device is the thresher ”Röck” – product of the first Hungarian agricultural factory – which is also to be found in the roofed shed, and has retained its usability till now.
Barber’s shop
The „Szántó” family has built a new house including a workshop in the Kossuth street in Hosszúhetény in 1939. This workshop has been run for more than 60 years as a barber’s shop. According to an agreement with the Szántó family in June 2009, the Local Government opened the workshop as a showroom for the visitors, equipped with its original furniture and traditional tools.
Mihály Szauer (1868-1913) – the first member of the „Szántó-Szauer barber’s dynasty” – began his work already in the 19th century. His son Márton Szántó (1894-1966) followed his father’s barber trade, and so did his grandchild János Szántó (1921-). János Szántó was an apprentice in the barber’s shop of barber master Vencel Szauer in Pécs. He left school with outstanding results and having his certificate he began to work at his father’s shop.
The workshop you can visit was opened in 1940. János Szántó took his master examination in 1946 in Pécs, applied for a license and worked in the village as barber master for ladies and gentlemen until his death in 2007. At first he also cut hair and shaved at the clients’ home as his father and grandfather did - who pulled teeth as well. From 1953 on, this home service was allowed only in case of illness.
The barber always took his so-called barber’s bag with him, with the necessary barber tools:
- hair cutting tools: hand haircutter, haircutting cape, combs, scissors, neck brush,
- shaving tools: shaving serviette, face towel, shaving strop, cleansing sponge, depicter bowl with shaving brush, shaving soap, hand towel, after shave lotion, alum and powder.
The furniture and the chairs of the workshop are in good condition still today. In the glass-case you can see hand haircutters, shavers, shaving soap, Pitralon after shave lotion, hair oil with sprayer, teeth extractors and shaving brushes. The old hair dryer, the warm perm machine, and the waving iron also belong to the curiosities of the workshop and are very much unlike the tools in use today.
There was no defined shop hours in the workshop, anyone could pop in at any time and the barber was available for him. Most people resorted to this service in the afternoon after working hours. Evenings the barber would cut hair and shaved by the light of a petroleum lamp, while chatting with his guests.
On Sundays the guests leisurely read newspapers, commenting on the news, and in this manner the workshop was an important center in the everyday life of the village.
The spirit of the workshop recalls the times before World War II, and shows memories of a withered profession that has completely changed by today.
At the end of the XVIII th century there was a significant glassmanufacture in the woods of Eastern Mecsek near by Hosszúhetény. The glassmanufacturers arising from the Bohemian-Bavarian woods settled down first in Óbánya (Old Glasshouse), then in Kisújbánya (New Glasshouse) and after all in Pusztabánya (Glasshouse). Pusztabánya was also called ’’the glasshouse of Hosszúhetény’’ and recently on its original place you can see the revealed ruines of of the glasshouse.
The local Self-government and the Community Centre ’’Nemes János’’ cherished a joint dream for a long time, namely to worthly commemorate the glassinheritance of the glasshauses of Eastern Mecsek in the form of an exhibition about the history of the glassmanufacture in this region. The continuous exhibition was worked out and realized on the ground-floor of the community centre. by János Jegenyés and Ágnes Kertészfi glass-artists, Béla Novotny internal architect, Ádám Lang historian, János Papp cultural specialist and numerous volunteers.
The reconstruction of the building was advanced by a common program titled ’’glass-weekend’’, that was planned for 5-6th July, 2008 by five civil organizations from 5 villages. The 100 m2 exhibition area shaped up till then became a worthy opening spot of the bank of programs.
The objective tokens of the excavation works at the glasshouse in Pusztabánya, the material collected and guarded over years by János Jegenyés, and glass-creations of several worldfamous glassartists exhibited at the yearly organized art exhibition in Pécs are parts of this glass exhibition of Hosszúhetény.
The Folk Dance Group of Hosszúhetény
Since its establishment in 1972, the folk dance group of Hosszúhetény is an illustrious representative of preserving the tradition in Baranya county and is a successor of the late „Gyöngyösbokréta” group of Hosszúhetény. During these 35 years, the group has received several national and international festival awards and also owns the title „ever outstanding group”.
Lately, the group has taken part successfully on professional festivals and competitions „EUROCULT” in Netherlands, „Danube Folksfestival” and at the show of traditional dresses. The group scored full marks from the „National Stage of Folk Dancers” and was awarded with an „outstanding” qualification. It represented Hungary the seventh time at the International Folkfestival „European Wedding” in Wegrow, Poland.
The „vintage celebrations” held every year on the last Saturday of September is a traditional program in Hosszúhetény. This program attracts a lot of visitors from year to year. With the „Day of Traditional Wear” organized last year, our goal was to achieve that more and more people get dressed in traditional wear and take part on the mass. As we would like to make a tradition of this program, we’ll organize it also this year, on Sunday, the 8th of August.
The folk dance group has also got it’s own „brass-band” with the leadership of Árpád Keserű. The leader of the folk dance group is János Papp.
Contact:
Phone: 72-490-827
Fax: 72-490-895
János Papp, Group Leader: 06-30-319-57-80
Mail address:7694, Hosszúhetény, Verseny u. 9.
Email:nepiegyüttes@hosszuheteny.hu, hetenyhaz@t-online.hu
Repertoire of the folk dance group:
Traditional choreographies from Hosszúhetény:
János Kaszás: “Gaynesses of Hosszúhetény” (about 14 minutes)
János Kaszás: “Waiting for the Spring” (about 13 minutes)
János Kaszás: “I have been enlisted” (about 8 minutes)
János Papp: “Bridal in Hosszúhetény” (about 17 minutes)
János Papp: “At peep of dawn” – bridal plays
Soloist Gyula Füzi sings folk songs
Brass-band: A musical block of the Music band
Others:
Helmut Heil: „Szűri dances” (in German)
Helmut Heil: „Hat dance” (in German)
Mrs. Andrea Katona Gunszt:” Miller’s dance”
Mrs. Andrea Katona Gunszt: „Dances of Mecseknádasd”