Abstract
Industrial heritage is not just the industrial landscape, buildings, and material objects, but also the highly complex cultural heritage created by industrial society, with many unique features. The former industrial towns of East-Central European countries have little memory of their early capitalist industrial past, and their socialist legacy is mostly seen as an unwanted and unwelcome burden. Industrial heritage preservation in Hungary was also adversely affected by the ideology of de-industrialization in the late 1980s, and this was compounded by struggles over the politics of memory. Salgótarján, as the seat of Nógrád County, is a city with county rights that has one of the worst social and economic indicators in the country, with dozens of slums, many of them on former industrial sites. The number of sites suitable for greenfield investment in the valley town is low, while the proportion of under-utilized brownfields is high. The real turning point in the development of the settlement was the opening of the mines and the mining boom in the second half of the 19th century. The opening of the mines was soon followed by the construction of larger industrial plants: the steel mill, the hollow-glass and later flat-glass factory, and the ironworks (stove factory). Initially, skilled workers were recruited from abroad, which laid the foundations for a unique society, as much of the population had no ties to the settlement, or even to Hungary—only to the work and their employer. The industrial society of Salgótarján formed a well-defined local community with a sense of identity. The management of the companies and factories, the network of workers' welfare institutions, the managed leisure programs and facilities, and of course the built environment of the colonies played a major role in all this. Under state socialism, the factories continued to operate with an artificially inflated workforce, and after the political regime change in 1989, the privatized plants closed down with dramatic abruptness, leading to social trauma and high unemployment in the settlement. The preservation and presentation of industrial heritage is also important for the city's identity while the built environment is undergoing a radical transformation, which is why buildings that are deemed worthy of preservation should be given a new function as soon as possible so that they may remain an integral part of the settlement.
Introduction
My study aims to shed light on the phenomenon of vacant factory buildings and rust belts – a legacy of the industrial past – that weighs heavy, yet is full of potential, and on the role of the industrial past in shaping the cultural heritage that defines local identity. Industrial heritage is most often understood as the industrial landscape, former factory buildings, machinery, and vehicles, which, although of inestimable value to a romantically inclined researcher, are often presented in the media only as brownfield investment, reclamation, and waste management issues for cities dotted with rust belts. On closer examination, however, industrial heritage is understood as not only the industrial landscape, buildings, and material objects, but also the highly complex and unique cultural heritage created by the industrial society. Gábor Sonkoly compared the notion of “cultural heritage” to a pilled fabric from which countless threads can be pulled (Sonkoly 2016). Ethnographer Attila Paládi-Kovács, a pioneer of Hungarian labor research, has also published a comprehensive study on the concept of national cultural heritage (Paládi-Kovács 2014). He noted that Hungarian ethnography, like German ethnography, has for a long time overlooked industrial workers, even though their distinctive lifeways,1 customs, and folklore elements put them within ethnography's concept of “folk” in all respects (Paládi-Kovács 2007:7). Accordingly, workers are included in the Society volume of his comprehensive work, Hungarian Ethnography (Paládi-Kovács 2000). In my research to date, I have found that the former industrial towns of East-Central European countries retain few memories of their early capitalist industrial past, and their socialist legacy is mostly seen as an unwanted and unwelcome burden. This kind of attitude is not conducive to successful and progressive utilization strategies for towns and counties. In the era of early capitalism, there were vast differences in the working conditions, housing, wages, and alimentation of workers, and although we know of several large enterprises that employed Fordist2 principles, stories of industrialists rewarding honest, precise workmanship with high wages and social benefits are few and far between. One of the reasons for this is that in Hungary, negative propaganda directed at the capitalist industrial past was an integral part of the “socialist modernization” launched after World War II, based on the Soviet model. It is fascinating to compare this strategy of looking at the past with the post-socialist identity-building processes that followed the political regime change in 1989, which were initially dominated by efforts to suppress and rewrite the socialist past. Today, this process has come to a halt, but a new strategy for tackling the past is only just taking shape. Former industrial settlements and heavy industry centers must face their past, their history, their heritage, the foundations of their identity.3 Industrial heritage preservation in Hungary was also adversely affected by the ideology of de-industrialization in the late 1980s, and this was compounded by struggles over the politics of memory. The governments of the time “watched the destruction of Hungarian technical monuments and the loss of technical collections created by civil society organizations with disinterest and incomprehension” (Paládi-Kovács 2020a:12). For the memories of the industrial past to become a cultural heritage, it is not enough for the technical intelligentsia and the local patriots of the industrial towns to fight for it—the openness of the population and the administration and the work of many specialists are also needed (This was explored in detail in Németh 2020). Industrial centers need basic sociological research, interdisciplinary approaches, and creative debates in order to use to their advantage what is already theirs: their past. I aim to contribute to this enormous work, primarily with my ethnographic research.
Ethnological ways of knowing as a challenge to social history was discussed in Hans Medick's essay “Missionaries in the rowboat” (Medick 1988), wherein he sought answers to issues that were also crucial to my own research, such as: how can ethnology and history be combined, how can people be approached in anthropological fieldwork, and how can interviews be used as a source for describing lived history? How can former workers living in their apartments in residential complexes be persuaded to talk about their relationship to the factory, how they climbed the social ladder, and how the same company became the basis of their livelihood and identity for generations? How did it shape their personality and lifestyle and define their goals? Finally, what was it like to assist in its demise, and what survival strategies did they choose for the future? The answers to these questions are all an integral part of Salgótarján's industrial heritage.4
The past and present of Salgótarján
The region of Northern Hungary includes the counties of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén, Heves, and Nógrád. The center of the region is Miskolc, which is the third most populous city in the country, and its extensive catchment area and institutional system are much more developed than those of Salgótarján.5 Salgótarján, as the seat of Nógrád County, is a city with county rights that has one of the worst social and economic indicators in the country, with dozens of slums, many of them on former industrial sites. The number of sites suitable for greenfield investment in the valley town is low, while the proportion of under-utilized brownfield sites is high. A serious problem is that brownfield sites are almost invariably in private hands, so the municipality cannot rehabilitate and redevelop them.6
In 1850, there were only 128 thatched farmhouses built of wood and adobe in the area that is now Salgótarján (Szvircsek 1977:24), but in 1869, it was already home to nearly 4,200 people, and in 1910 to 13,726 (Nagy – Várkonyi-Nickel 2020:288). The turning point in the development of the settlement was the opening of the mines and the subsequent mining boom. The opening of the mines was soon followed by the construction of larger industrial plants. Initially, skilled workers were recruited from abroad, which laid the foundations for a unique society, since much of the population had no ties to the settlement, or even to Hungary or one of the ethnic groups—only to the work and the company that employed them. On January 27, 1922, the local council of Salgótarján – which soon outgrew its status as both village and municipality – declared the settlement a town without any special ceremony (Szvircsek 1990:176). Zoltán Szabó made a research trip to Salgótarján in the mid-1930s and described it in his sociography as follows: “Salgótarján is a town that was not born but made. And it was designed not in terms of how to make the town more beautiful and urban, but solely and exclusively in terms of the factories. As a result, today there are four Salgótarjáns. One is the Salgótarján of the Rima, the other of the mine, the third of the glass factory, and the fourth of the Hirsch factory” (Szabó [1938]:231–232). Let's take a closer look at the development and history of the four corporate districts in the early capitalist period.
The mine
Large-scale mining of brown coal in the Salgótarján area began in 1861, when the Szent István Coal Mining Company was founded (Szvircsek 1977:23), which became the Salgótarján Coal Mining Company in 1868 with the state's involvement.7 Salgótarján was designated as the center of mining operations, since in May 1867 the completed railway connected Tarján with the capital (Horváth 1998:12).
Workers' colonies were being continuously expanded to accommodate miners recruited from Northern Hungary, primarily the Slovak regions, and the miners' colonies established around Salgótarján – Rónabánya, Salgóbánya, Somlyóbánya – slowly began to look like villages with their miners' churches and small houses. Glee clubs, bands, and amateur art associations were also formed in each of the miners' colonies. The Forgách colony was built in the southeast, on the way to Kazár. The labor force was markedly different from the peasantry in the way they related to time. They were no longer bound by seasonal work; for the most part, they did not produce their own clothing and household goods, so they had something that radically transformed their recreational activities and was also essential for regular exercise: leisure time. On Sundays, the only non-working day,8 they not only attended church, but formed singing clubs, hiking clubs, and discovered types of leisure activities that were previously unknown to them, so sports grounds, gyms, and swimming pools became important venues. One of the best-known drama clubs in town was founded in 1920 as the Amateur Troupe of the Forgách Division of the Salgótarján Miners' Sports Club (SBTC) (Fig. 1).
The SBTC team in the early 20th century (Dornyay Béla Museum Photo Collection, inv. 3760)
Citation: Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 68, 2; 10.1556/022.2024.00006
At the end of 1925, they adopted the name Közkedvelt Színpad (Popular Stage) and chose the restaurant of Károly Omilyák on Liget Street as their location.9 The outskirts of the town were slowly covered by the various branch lines of the narrow-gauge mining railway, which were also used for public transport and connected them to the center of Salgótarján. The residential complexes of the officers and workers of the Salgótarján Coal Mining Company were built on the western edge of the valley, closest to the center of the colony. Workers' housing varied considerably from one colony to another, with significant differences in the type of building materials—and therefore the construction method. The most modest form of accommodation was a temporary wooden barrack; much better living conditions were provided by brick houses with a room and a kitchen. In the early 20th century, the focus of mining operations was increasingly shifted to Kisterenye, as the mines in the immediate vicinity of the town were exhausted. The mine's management and administrative staff remained in Salgótarján.
The steel mill
In 1868, the construction of the Salgótarján Iron Refinery (later steel mill) began, and the first dwellings for officers and workers were built on today's Acélgyári Road concurrently with the factory buildings (Nickel 2017b:85). Skilled workers were mostly recruited from the territory of what was then Northern Hungary, now Slovakia, so initially they spoke several languages, but Slovak and German were gradually replaced by Hungarian. Between the two world wars, only the older generation preserved their original mother tongue. “We children only spoke Hungarian. But in the building where we lived (I still live here), there were also Slovaks and Zipsers.10 Women used to come to mom's place in the evenings to chat, and we children were also there, eavesdropping. And when they wanted to talk about something like that, they would speak in Slovak, because we didn't understand it.”11 After several conversions, the company continued its production activities in 1881 as the Rimamurány-Salgótarjáni Vasmű Rt. (Rimamurány-Salgótarján Ironworks Ltd.), becoming one of the most significant large enterprises in Hungarian industrial history, with subsidiaries not only in Salgótarján but also in Ózd,12 Borsodnádasd, and several other smaller ones. By the end of the 19th century, the company's management had established an institutional social and welfare system for its employees, which was continuously developed in accordance with the Fordist principles mentioned above.13 Soon, the category of what Giddens14 called the lower and upper working classes emerged. In the 1920s, it was already providing health insurance, accident insurance, a pension fund, corporate resorts, hospitals, an orphanage, and a retirement community for its workers, officers, and their families.15 Of the factory's employees, only officers and much-valued skilled workers were allowed to live in these settlements, or, in contemporary parlance, colonies, and a significant proportion of the workers were commuters.16 At the entrance to the settlements, a barrier marked the boundary of the private property of the Rimamurány-Salgótarján Ironworks Ltd. Driving in and out of the colony was only possible with a “pasturta,” i.e., a pass issued by the colony manager (Nagy – Nickel 2020). “The barrier that separates the highway from the colony roadway separates mud from asphalt, poverty from wealth, the county road from the Rimamurány section of the road. The world outside the colony and the world inside the fence are two distinct countries, although there are workers in both” (Szabó [1938]:157) (Fig. 2).
Acélgyári Road in the 1920s (Dornyay Béla Museum Photo Collection, inv. 804_6_811)
Citation: Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 68, 2; 10.1556/022.2024.00006
The lucky ones who were given an apartment in the factory colony could live there for a nominal rent until retirement, that is, as long as they were able to work. In addition to their wages, they also received benefits in kind, such as free electricity, free fuel, cheap food and clothes in the factory's “Commissaries” (Nickel 2015:373–374). Given that their income was higher than the national average while their expenses were lower, with the money they saved, most tenants of the colony managed to build their own single-family house on a parcel before retiring.17 And those who had to commute from Salgótarján's cathment area or from other settlements did everything they could to ensure that in return for their precise and persistent work, they could eventually move to the colony, where, in addition to the living environment, the diversity of leisure activities was also attractive. For the most part, sons took over their father's profession, and it was a given that they would stay within the Rima. The way my informants put it: they couldn't see past the barrier. “Be upright, work hard, try to get into the factory, because if you get in, your livelihood is guaranteed!” – my father used to tell me as a child.18 Thanks to the phenomena, activities, and specific sense of time that became the property of working-class children through natural indoctrination, they formed a well-defined, distinctive social stratum, just like the peasantry. In my monograph on steelworks lifeways, I examined in detail the process of children's inculturation into work, children's mental maps, children's games, and a child's place in the family and in the colony (Nickel 2017b). The “Rima district” had a vibrant cultural and sporting life. Within the framework of the Officers' Club (called a casino), organized from the top down, the management of the company created opportunities for sports in Salgótarján, which the workers made use of from the beginning, thus moving towards a bourgeois lifestyle.19 The Readers' Society gave rise to the steelworks band, the glee club, and Hungary's very first workers' drama troupe. Completely volunteer-based and with little financial support, the troupe of “amateurs” undertook the task of providing audiences with meaningful and high-quality entertainment, with a view to fostering the Hungarian language. On June 19, 1887, they gave an open-air performance of Károly Gerő’s play, Turtle Dove, on the premises of the bowling alley. The play was directed by József Csányi, albeit with great efforts, as most of the cast of the Hungarian-language performance was not yet fluent in Hungarian. Eventually, they managed to learn the lines, and the troupe's debut was a great success (Nickel 2017b:151) (Fig. 3).
The steelworks glee club in the first half of the 20th century (Dornyay Béla Museum Photo Collection, inv. 3142)
Citation: Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 68, 2; 10.1556/022.2024.00006
“Their bourgeois outlook separates this world from that of the other workers almost as much as the barrier at the head of Rimamurányi Road separates the steel mill from the city. Two things characterize them: one is a bourgeois lifestyle, and the other is that they are “Rimaites” (Szabó [1938]:240–241). Just as it is not easy to define the bourgeoisie, it is also quite difficult to define precisely what the sociologist meant by “bourgeois lifestyle” in 1938, but looking at the way they dressed, it appears that foremen (later superintendents) and skilled workers of higher status mostly possessed the items of clothing that Katalin F. Dózsa listed as elements of the wardrobe of a well-to-do middle-class man.20 An elementary school had already been operating at the steelworks in the 19th century, but the new school, built in 1929 and equipped with modern facilities, was recognized by school inspectors as a national model (Nickel 2017b:47). Following the cholera epidemic of 1872, a corporate hospital was established at the steelworks, with doctor's offices, an operating theater, a 12-bed men's and a six-bed women's ward, bathrooms, nurses' and doctors' quarters, and a wooded park for convalescent patients. A separate pest house with eight beds and nurses' quarters was also set up (Lizsnyánszky et al. 1968:53).
The Treaty of Trianon, which ended World War I, deprived the Rimamurány-Salgótarjáni Ironworks of its raw material resources. The director of the steel mill, Jenő Liptay B., played a key role in the successful border adjustment negotiations for the return of forest holdings and coalfields annexed to Czechoslovakia (Nickel 2023:37). In the areas of Salgó, Medves, and Vecseklő, the international commission eventually established the border based on the boundary of the coal reserves, with the village of Somoskő also returned to Hungary, and the company was soon able to resume production with the pre-war workforce.
The glass factory
In 1893, production began in the town's other major plant, the bottle factory, later hollow-glass factory. In addition to the production of hollow glassware, the production of drawn glass also started in 1894, with a capital investment of HUF 200,000 by the company “Schwartz A. and Sons” (Szvircsek 1988:281). The plant was the only Hungarian glassworks to use coal firing, and employed around 200 workers in the 1890s. In 1894, they produced 25 q of 2–4 mm thick flat glass (Szabó – Horváth 1969:145). In 1906, the factory was bought by Jenő Pock, a glass manufacturer from Hámor, and soon the best quality plate glass in the country was being produced here. The Salgótarján Bottle Factory was the best equipped and most mechanized glass factory in the county, its 270 workers producing 12 million pieces of hollow glassware annually. The workers' colony was built to accommodate a total of 100 families. Each apartment had a room, a kitchen, a pantry, as well as a pig sty, and a coal bunker.21 Most of the glassworkers in Salgótarján came from Slovak glass-blowing families in Northern Hungary (Fig. 4).
Glassworkers in the early 20th century (Dornyay Béla Museum Photo Collection, inv. 292)
Citation: Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 68, 2; 10.1556/022.2024.00006
The Treaty of Trianon, which ended World War I, caused the greatest disruption in glass production after the parent company of the glassworks, Union Glashütte A.G. in Aussig, was annexed to Czechoslovakia (Szvircsek 1988:286). Starting in August 1919, workers were laid off en masse. The factory was reopened on May 4, 1926, after 33 months of inactivity. Once again, skilled workers were recruited from abroad for the pottery kilns, and a large building with 16 apartments was built to accommodate them. When the factory was commissioned, it provided employment for some 250 workers. They started recruiting workers again, while also recalling the glassblowers that had been laid off, of course, but they were very slow to solve the shortage of skilled workers. The colony, however, was repopulating and becoming increasingly cramped, so the company soon built another 12-unit, single-storey apartment building, which was placed parallel to the other buildings of the colony. The expansion of the colony was made necessary by the addition of 22 Czechoslovak workers. Unskilled workers from around Salgótarján were recruited for the semi-automatic machines of the tub furnace, who then became “skilled workers.” As the number of workers increased, the colony once again faced a housing shortage, so emergency housing was built in the attics of older houses. Those who were still unable to find an apartment were given temporary accommodation in the empty houses of the nearby mining settlements. One of my interviewees recalled her family's move to Salgótarján: “My father came to work in the glass factory in 1928 as an unmarried man. After getting married, he brought his wife to Salgótarján in 1929. As was the custom at the time, the factory provided housing for skilled workers. Since there was no apartment available, they moved into a rental apartment provided by the mine, where I was born in 1931, and later had a sister and a brother. In 1937, they were given an apartment in the so-called Tót colony, because most of the skilled workers were imported workers and of various ethnicities: Germans, Slovaks, Czechs, and Hungarians living together, the families and children got along well.”22
Like the mine and the steel mill, this industrial colony also had a drama club, a glee club, and regularly held concerts and dance parties. One of the notable events of the glassworkers was the glassblowers' ball. It was usually held in the mine's casino, in a room reserved for officers, with a separate entrance. This event was a good display of the hierarchy among glassworkers.23 There was also a lively social and artistic life in the glass factory's canteen: the popular theatre performances put on by the Salgótarján Bottle Factory Workers' Association enjoyed great success, which is why in 1926 the canteen became one of the most popular entertainment venues in town (Balogh 1995:66).
Iron foundry and stove factory
The history of the fourth oldest and most important large enterprise in Salgótarján, next to the coal mine, steel mill, and glassworks, began in 1886, when Fülöp Hirsch founded his iron foundry in Budapest and built a factory in Salgótarján, next to the glassworks.24 Its history is less well-studied than that of the steel mill or the glassworks, so a more detailed study of it will require extended archival research. At the turn of the century, the company, which mainly produced machine tools, utility equipment, lifting machinery, transport equipment, and cast iron, employed an average of 300 workers a year, and in twenty years the number of workers increased to 700 (Szvircsek 1977:5) (Fig. 5).
Ironworkers in the first half of the 20th century (Dornyay Béla Museum Photo Collection, inv. 4153N)
Citation: Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 68, 2; 10.1556/022.2024.00006
Here, too, the workers' colony was built right next to the factory, and it also had its own sports grounds, sports team, and band. After the decision made in Trianon, the ironworks also operated with a reduced workforce due to a shortage of raw materials, but they managed to find a solution to the problem at the same time as the steel mill. The local newspaper Munka praised the managing director of the Hirsch and Frank factory as follows: “Many families have already been saved from despair, hunger, and suffering by the managing director of the Hirsch factory: ‘Munka,’ as a champion of workers' interests, raises the flag of respect and recognition to Géza Horváth, the director of the Hirsch and Frank factory.”25 In the peaceful years that followed the hardships, production went on uninterrupted, only to be brought to an end by another world war.
The era of state socialism
World War II put all the large enterprises in town in a dire situation, as the shortage of coal and raw materials, which lasted for years, made it very difficult to maintain production. The glass factory only produced for internal consumption, while the steel mill continued to operate as a war factory, keeping a significant proportion of its workers from front-line service for a long time. In 1944, before the Soviet troops arrived in Salgótarján, German-Hungarian units occupied the factories with orders to dismantle or cripple them. The workers who were still there were sent to the front, and the power-generation of the factories was paralyzed unless resourceful workers thwarted it.26 After the town and the factories came under Soviet military command, the revival of industry and the reorganization of the departments began. All this was very slow and difficult, since the absence of an active male population meant that the only way to restart the factories was to use female labor. By the end of 1945, production had stabilized in all four factories, but then the nationalization procedures began, first affecting private energy-producing enterprises (mines, electric power plants), then the largest heavy industry corporations, and soon the mine, the machine factory, and the steel mill also became state-owned enterprises.27 After nationalization, the Hirsch and Frank iron foundry split from the Budapest plant and continued its operation as the Salgótarjáni Vasöntöde és Tűzhelygyár (Salgótarján Iron Foundry and Stove Factory) (Fig. 6).
Work in the foundry (Dornyay Béla Museum Photo Collection, inv. 2062)
Citation: Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 68, 2; 10.1556/022.2024.00006
The glass factory was nationalized later, on March 25, 1948. Based on Government Decree 4343 of December 14, 1949, Salgótarján became the seat of Nógrád County on January 1, 1950. While the miners' standard of living rose, the steelworkers' standard of living declined, as their wages decreased to align with those of other workers, and they lost other benefits, such as free coal, electricity, and the privileges of steelworkers: cheap food, clothing, building materials, and housing. In addition to nationalization, society was also confronted with another, hitherto unknown, perplexing situation: women workers in factories. Before the war, women had tended to be employed only in offices, but now men had to accept the rise of women in positions of crane operators, truck drivers, and other jobs requiring technical expertise. All this was not easy, going against centuries-old traditions. Before the war, it was often considered shameful for a man to have his wife working, but then, almost in the blink of an eye, the working woman became part of the socialist human ideal.28 With women entering the workforce, there was a growing need for the development of state-organized public catering – factory canteens and school canteens of acceptable quality.29 But this was still years away, especially in terms of a uniformly acceptable level of service.
The Soviet-style large-scale industrial development swelled the number of workers in the steel mill, and the town's population soon exceeded 30,000. Factory officials were replaced with political “parachutists,” and underqualified worker-managers were put in charge while unqualified workers' cadres populated the middle management levels. Open, aggressive political propaganda emerged at all levels: bulletin boards, public address systems, the press (e.g., Tarjáni Acél, Szabad Nógrád, and the national paper, Szabad Nép). Complaints voiced at the party committee meetings stated that both Szabad Nép and Szabad Nógrád only had large numbers of “subscribers” when the subscription fee was automatically deducted from the salaries, so the workers had no choice. When this was temporarily discontinued, the number of subscribers dropped drastically. The party had the most problems with steelworkers. In 1952, they would rebuke agitators promoting peace bonds, and they refused to read the obligatory press, letting the newspapers pile up by the door week after week. In the end, they “broke” the resisters by turning them into Stakhanovites with a sharp turn: their pictures were regularly published in Tarjáni Acél, and their leading personalities were also assigned to tour villages, to “put them on the right path” by having them work as agitators (Nickel 2017b:185).
We know of many forms of individual survival strategies from the 1950s from all over the country, including Salgótarján.30 The people living in the steelworks colony differed significantly from the wider society of the city in one way. These were children of working class dynasties that had lived and worked here for generations, and who, through their personal experiences, could see through the dishonesty of the propaganda of the Hungarian Communist Party (MKP) and its successor, the Hungarian Workers' Party (MDP); they were annoyed by professional dilettantism, and were in solidarity with the pre-war officials (Fig. 7).
Glassworkers after World War II (Dornyay Béla Museum Photo Collection, inv. 3227N)
Citation: Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 68, 2; 10.1556/022.2024.00006
In Salgótarján in 1968, the economic reform called “New Economic Mechanism”31 brought a true recovery, when technical managers were once again put in charge of the factories. All this coincided with the emergence of a new energy carrier, the transition to natural gas, and the permanent closure of the mines. In Salgóbánya, production stopped in the second half of the 1950s, and in 1957 the mining railway was also shut down. This was a serious trauma for the town's population at the time. Placing the workforce released from the mining industry became a new challenge. Large factories were constructed to absorb the newly freed up workforce. In 1968, the steel mill and the glass factory were renamed, and production improved significantly, ushering in a period of recovery. The steel mill was named Salgótarjáni Kohászati Üzemek (SKÜ, Salgótarján Metallurgical Works), and the bottle factory became Üvegipari Művek Salgótarján Öblösüveggyár (Glassworks Salgótarján Hollow Glass Factory). The 1970s and 1980s were the heyday of both factories. Hand-made and machine-made glass was exported all over the world, and the steel mill launched new developments, such as the Dexion shelf system, based on a British patent (Fig. 8).
Glass blower in the hollow glass factory (Dornyay Béla Museum Photo Collection, inv. 2018)
Citation: Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 68, 2; 10.1556/022.2024.00006
After the regime change
The economic changes that occurred at the end of the 1980s, the subsequent changes in external market demands, and the lack of technical and technological improvements led to a further decline of the factories. In the early 1990s, SKÜ’s revenues fell sharply, and the steel mill came close to bankruptcy. In 1993, the State Property Agency decided to convert it into a limited company, and the company reverted to its traditional name, Salgótarjáni Acélárugyár Rt. (Salgótarján Steelworks Ltd.). Even though it received a state-guaranteed loan and its results improved gradually, the company was privatized in 1998. The steel mill was slowly dismantled and permanently closed in 2014, its buildings almost completely demolished, its museal, intact machines, some over one hundred years old, removed as scrap metal, part of its collection of photographs, designs, and other documents rescued by the staff of the Dornyay Béla Museum and the Nógrád County Archives. Outside the factory gates, candles were lit, and people kept vigil through the night – some in person, others in spirit – as befits the remains of a hundred-years-old, wise patriarch. “To this day, I am proud to have been born a RIMAITE, and the style and mindset instilled in me will accompany me throughout my life.”32
The situation in the glass factory improved in 2001–2002 – major investments were made through grants – but after 2006, the company still faced troubles on several occasions. On December 3, 2012, hollow glassware production resumed with subsidies from the Municipality of Salgótarján. However, the owner had filed for bankruptcy several times since then, so the factory is currently not in operation, but its buildings are still standing, with most of the furnaces and other equipment still in place. The former workers' colony had already been demolished, so there are no workers' dwellings to be proposed for preservation. The buildings of the former Flat Glass Factory (SALGGLAS) are no longer standing, only the fiberglass factory complex. The monumental, modern, glass-fronted building was a dominant element of the Salgótarján skyline, and its demolition is a great loss in terms of industrial heritage, as is the empty site where the factory building, built at the turn of the 20th century, once stood (Fig. 9).
Streetscape with the hollow glass factory in May 2023 (Photo by Vira Réka Nickel)
Citation: Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 68, 2; 10.1556/022.2024.00006
The stove factory was privatized in 1992. At that time, the Munich-based WAMSLER GmbH formed SVT-WAMSLER Ltd., the majority shareholder being the Hungarian State Property Agency, and in 1995 the company also bought the former mining machinery plant. The profile of the new company, Iparfém Ltd., became the production of fireplaces and parts. Since 2008, they have continued manufacturing fireplaces and stoves as Wamsler SE European Household Technologies Plc.33 The factory is still in operation today, with a minimal workforce, and its factory buildings are still standing—their preservation assessment would be imperative. The workers' colony, on the other hand, was demolished decades ago, its former residential buildings only surviving in photographs and blueprints.
Privatization after the political regime change in 1989–90 and the new economic environment has led to the closure or restructuring of some of the industrial enterprises, a significant proportion of employees lost their jobs, and consequently, unemployment became one of the town's biggest problems.34 According to Salgótarján's 2021 Economic Development Strategy, the number of registered jobseekers was 3,374 on December 20, 2008, increasing to 4,166 on December 20, 2009 as a result of the global economic crisis, and peaking in 2012. Today, the majority of the economically active population opts for commuting daily, but many also leave for good. Between January 1, 2000 and January 1, 2019, the population of Salgótarján decreased by 12,733, or more than 27%, which is significantly higher than county, regional, and national rates.35
“Is the factory yours, are you building it for yourself?” – the built industrial heritage in Salgótarján
“I miss the factory. Sometimes I still hear the blare of the shift rotation horn. Even though there hasn't been a horn for years. I grew up here, my life was closely tied to the factory, as was my father's and grandfather's. Now I don't have my grandfather, my father, nor the factory anymore”36 Although several industrial buildings and dwellings of the former workers' colony have been proposed for monument conservation in Salgótarján, apart from the mining museum, no other industrial heritage is included on the list of monuments. “There are no historical landscapes or sites of historical significance protected by decree in and around Salgótarján. There are 10 monuments and 6 sites of historical significance in the town. The sites of the Salgó Castle ruins, the József inclined shaft, and the St. Andrew's Roman Catholic Church are protected ex lege.”37 In the 2014–2020 period, there were two social urban rehabilitation projects in the town, both concerning the former industrial plant. One was the rehabilitation of the odd-numbered side of Salgó Road, the so-called “Casino Row,” in the steelworks district, and the other was the restoration of the former miners' houses on the Forgách colony (Fig. 10).38
Restored colony houses on Casino Row in April 2023 (Photo by Vira Réka Nickel)
Citation: Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 68, 2; 10.1556/022.2024.00006
It would be important to conduct more in-depth research on slums, as Péter Alabán did in the case of miners' colonies and factory colonies around Ózd (Alabán 2020), but this would be beyond the scope of this study. Most of the former industrial plants have been occupied by impoverished Gypsy families, both in Ózd and Salgótarján. In the absence of nearby workplaces, the integration of this stratum seems almost futile.
More and more architects in Hungary are dedicating studies, theses, and dissertations to alternatives for the reclamation of industrial sites and factory buildings, as the under-utilization of these buildings is not a new issue (among others, for example: Kristóf – Váczi 2006; Kirády 2009; Tácsik 2020). Since the 1960s, in Western European countries, the management of cities relying on traditional industries has faced the challenge of de-industrialization; more specifically, the issue of what to do with the industrial buildings, structures, and machinery that lost their function. Thanks to their vast interiors that can accommodate large crowds, many of the buildings have been converted into galleries, exhibition spaces, or given other cultural functions. The high ceilings, the light that filters through large glass surfaces like through the windows of Gothic cathedrals, and the installation possibilities offered by the structure of the building all reinforce this; e.g., Tate Modern in London, MEO Contemporary Fine Art Collection in Budapest's Millenáris Park, or the many buildings of the Ruhr area.39 This was a problem that East-Central Europe had to face with a delay of just over thirty years. Among Hungarian historians, Györgyi Németh is concerned primarily with the situation of industrial heritage in Hungary, which has not received much attention even after the regime change (Németh 1997, 2005, 2007, 2011, 2020). In this respect, we are far behind not only Western European countries but also our former socialist neighbors. The reason for this, according to Németh, lies in the fact that in Hungary, even in the early capitalist period, industrial and technical heritage was not treated according to its importance, and during the period of state socialism, industrial (and especially heavy industrial) monuments served primarily propagandistic purposes, which were understandably shunned after the regime change (Németh 2020:324).
Cultural heritage protection is governed by the Venice Charter, which was adopted internationally in 1964.40 The term ‘industrial heritage’ was coined later by French ethnologist Georges-Henri Rivière, who first used it in a colloquium held in Le Creusot in 1976. Its independent professional organization, The International Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage (TICCIH), was founded in Sweden in 1978. The initial term ‘industrial archeology’ has been replaced by the concept of industrial heritage, the principles of which were set out in a charter named after the city of Nizhny Tagil (but adopted in Moscow) at the TICCIH international conference in Russia in 2003.41 It states that industrial heritage is an integral part of cultural heritage and consists of industrial monuments that have historical, technical, social, architectural, or scientific value. In a 2011 joint statement, ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) – established in 1965 on the basis of the Venice Charter – and TICCIH summarized the guidelines for the conservation of industrial heritage sites, areas, structures, and buildings. The statement put the concept of industrial heritage in a broad perspective, in which one of the most important innovations is that in addition to the built and material heritage, it also highlights elements of the intangible heritage, such as the concept of “know-how”: knowledge related to the organization of work—and all the cultural and social heritage that has played a role in forming all those linked to industry into a community and society, and has thus brought about a large-scale transformation in the organization of the entire world in a general sense.42 TICCIH designated as industrial heritage the relics of the following fields: 1. mining (metals, oil shale, stone, salt, non-metallic minerals, coal); 2. metallurgy, steel industry; 3. textile industry; 4. manufacturing (food, paper, glass, ceramics and cement); 5. machinery manufacture; 6. transport (railways, roads, canals, airports, ports, bridges); 7. communications (post, telecommunications); 8. energy (electricity, gas); 9. chemicals, petroleum, pharmaceuticals; 10. utilities, infrastructure; 11. industrial landscape; 12. industrial architecture, buildings.
The charters and heritage guidelines listed here do not guarantee the preservation of industrial heritage in Hungary, as they only represent a moral foundation and professional guidelines for individual states to use as a basis for enacting legislation to protect their heritage. The Hungarian law on the protection of cultural heritage, passed in 2001 and amended in 2005, did not even include the principles of the charter, let alone the concept of industrial heritage. In Hungary, a building can become a historic monument if its nomination documentation is accepted by the current adjucating entity. For a long time, this was the Historic Monuments Inspectorate, later its legal successor, the National Office of Cultural Heritage (Forster Center); its dissolution meant that the only 140-year-old institution for historic preservation had ceased to exist. The departments of monument protection authorities, which were outsourced to county government offices in 2011, lost their powers as building authorities for protected monuments in 2012, and can only issue expert opinions on planned interventions as competent authorities with rather weak powers (Lővei 2020:15). In 2013, the atomization of this function was completed by the role of first-level authority being taken over by districts and the second level by counties. Since the spring of 2019, the term ‘heritage protection’ no longer figures in the names of the various departments of the Ministry of Human Capacities.43 In 2023, “the protection of monuments, world heritage, and archeology, i.e., immovable cultural heritage, is the responsibility of the Deputy State Secretariat for Construction and Monument Protection within the State Secretariat for Construction. Within the State Secretariat for Construction, the Inspectorate of Cultural Goods is responsible for the protection of works of art, i.e., movable cultural property.”44 Since 2010, fewer and fewer industrial monuments have been granted protection and more and more are losing it or being destroyed (Németh 2020:320). Indeed, there is a great need for a public body responsible for industrial heritage, which does not yet exist. Aside from a few positive examples, the rapid destruction of industrial monuments is typical in Hungary (Fig. 11).
Demolition of the steel mill in 2007 (Photo by Vira Réka Nickel)
Citation: Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 68, 2; 10.1556/022.2024.00006
There is no question that no building can remain without a function, and to be preserved, it must be used by the local community.45 In her thesis, architect Piroska Varga collected and grouped all the functions that reclaimed industrial buildings can fulfill: cultural, recreational, social, residential (loft and luxury apartments), retail and services (office, shopping center) (Varga 2018). Apart from the large office building, the structures of the steel mill were demolished over the past ten years, as was the flat glass factory, so that the factory halls and production sites of the hollow glass factory are the only ones to offer some hope for the preservation of the town's oldest industrial monuments. The site of the hollow glass factory is located at the northern tip of the industrial area embedded into the urban fabric. This is the eight-hectare rust zone closest to downtown. Cultural experts and city authorities have been puzzling over how the former industrial buildings no longer in use might be reincorporated into the economic and artistic life of the local communities. Converting a huge factory building and giving it a different function is a real challenge for architects, since the spatial structure and functional layout of industrial buildings is generally very different from those of residential or public buildings, as are their space requirements and architectural and interior design needs (Varga 2018:58).
In his thesis, architect Tamás Tássik envisioned the old Salgótarján melting house as a new, multifunctional center, a complex that could house the Zenthe Ferenc Theater looking to move out of the city center and into its own building, the dance house run by the Nógrád Dance Ensemble, as well as a large community and event space that would meet all needs, hosting balls, gala dinners, exhibitions, conferences, and other events.46 In Eastern Europe, it is very common to envision only cultural functions for repurposed abandoned buildings, but it is economically unrealistic to fill and support such large spaces with cultural events alone. This is particularly true for former large industrial centers in rural areas. In Budapest, as in other major European cities, the halls are typically converted into climbing gyms, since the high ceilings make them suitable for indoor wall climbing that requires belaying, in addition to bouldering at lower heights. One rural example is the Factory Aréna, on the former Diósgyőr ironworks site, which is not just a climbing and skateboard park, but also has a serious social mission: trying to attract children from the numbered streets – the slums of the former ironworks colony – wandering the streets, helping them by offering them an opportunity to belong to a community. As a participant of the INTERREG V-A Slovakia-Hungary Cooperation Programme Small Project Fund, they also aim to encourage children living in the border zone to lead a healthier lifestyle and spend their leisure time in a more useful and valuable way, organizing sports competitions and camps for them.47
Almost all of the former industrial areas of rural Hungary, which are now deserted, are plagued with serious social problems: unemployment is high, so the population has less self-sufficiency, and there is no money left for entertainment, culture, or sports. In this respect, similar urban development proposals have been made nationwide and, of course, in Salgótarján as well, such as the establishment of assembly plants and processing plants where skilled work can be done, thus employing many people. The Ruhr area had similar social problems, yet it has been successfully rehabilitated through a project that has been running for more than thirty years.48 Of course, there are some unusual examples in Hungary as well, such as the Zsolnay Quarter49 in Pécs, the Óbuda Gasworks,50 or the Culture Factory51 in Ózd, established on the site of the former steelworks.
In Salgótarján, the use of the buildings of the former hollow glass factory for service, educational, and recreational purposes is also included in the city's latest urban development strategy. By 2030, the Nógrád County Vocational Training Center's Technical and Vocational School for Business and Hospitality Services is to be established on the site, with a new building and a so-called “Cultural Quarter.”52 However, an essential objective of the project is to create a key attraction that targets a wide audience, offers child-friendly activities and programs, and “lures” visitors to the city for half a day, thus improving the city's image as a tourist destination. Preliminary plans for the project include the creation of zones for different target groups. Children's zone,53 extreme zone,54 sports and play zone, events zone,55 green zone (park), services zone (restaurants, restrooms), business zone. The Economic Development Strategy mentioned above also draws attention to the fact that glass industry and technological know-how and well-equipped industrial areas are still present in the city, so new innovative ideas could be used to revitalize Salgótarján's hollow glassware production.56
Pursuant to Article 66 (1) of Act LXIV of 2001 on Cultural Heritage Protection, municipalities are required to prepare a heritage preservation impact assessment when drawing up their development concept. I examined the publicly available heritage preservation impact assessments of Salgótarján from the past 10 years, looking for an answer to the question: in what way and how much does industrial heritage figure in them? What strikes me is the lack of integration of the intellectual heritage of the industrial past – of glass production, the glassworks way of life – into the local identity. In the narratives of my interviewees from glassworker dynasties, the memories of the glass factory and the attachment to the factory and its activities are still as tangible today as they were in the case of steelworkers. “If they wanted to, they could still restart the factory. There are still grinders, painters, blowers. They are all good craftsmen who are masters of their craft. They work in other jobs, and of course most of them are retired now, but if they were told that they could revive the factory, they would all be happy to come to work and teach the youth, I'm sure of it.”57 The former glass factory site would also be a great tourist attraction if it were to display relics of the former glass industry. The Dornyay Béla Museum currently houses a glassworks collection of more than 4,050 items in its research repository,58 predominantly consisting of a fascinating variety of products and designs of the hollow glass factory. Visitors are only given a small glimpse of the machinery, the production methods, the working conditions, and especially the way of life. “The mine is now a thing of the past, the steelworks has been dismantled by scoundrels and sold for scrap. But the stove factory and the glass factory are still here. One could still do something with them. It is not true that everyone is leaving. There are still some people here. Their know-how is here, too. If only they would just let them work. If only they would create some jobs. We would boost this town like you wouldn't believe.”59
The natural underground mining museum located on the site of the former miners' colony, on the eastern edge of Veremoldal, constructed in the original, intact cut-and-cover tunnel system of the József inclined shaft, is a significant industrial heritage not only for Salgótarján, but also for Hungary and Europe. The institution that collects, preserves, and displays the history and technical relics of the coalfields of Nógrád and the 19th- and 20th-century technologies of coal mining is located in the heart of the city.60 Relatively few buildings remain from the mining district, but two of Salgótarján's 24 locally listed buildings are located here, according to the townscape protection regulation adopted in 2017.61 One is the Officers' and Workers' Casino, and the other is the former Mining Directorate building, built between 1923 and 1925 and designed by architect Róbert Fleischl. The distinctive two-storey building is set behind a park, with a balcony over the entrance, the axis of which once housed a statue of the director, Dr. Ferenc Chorin. The building was expanded in 1996 with minimal changes, preserving its original architecture.
In addition to the factory buildings, the town has a number of workers' dwellings, cultural centers, and other buildings whose protection would be important both locally and nationally. The oldest colony houses of the former steelworks district have preserved a considerable part of the original streetscape, making them significant at the European level, yet they are not locally listed. In the late 19th century, there were two extremes of workers' colonies across Europe.62 At the bottom of the scale were the plank-walled dugouts with appalling sanitary conditions, while at the top were the “model industrial villages” of the enterprises that Zsuzsa Körner called “paternalistic industrialists” (Körner 2004:12). In the late 19th century, the architects who designed industrial colonies faced a major challenge, as they had to build an environment where the entire factory workforce – from officers to workers – could share a living space, socialize, and integrate culturally, even beyond working hours if possible, and thereby remain available for production at any time. This had to be done in a way that neither the worker nor the officer felt burdened by their “affiliation with the factory,” and that by building a sense of cultural belonging, affiliation with the company became part of their local identity. Today's successful large enterprises follow similar principles, whether they produce tangible or intangible goods.
In Salgótarján, today's Acélgyári Road is the street leading from Rákóczi Road to the gates of the steelworks. The dominant buildings of the factory's former main street were built in the style of national romanticism, and although they are standard houses with four distinct interior spaces, their window designs and façade ornamentation lend them a playful and colorful look. The streetscape has changed little, despite the addition of some residential buildings in the 1960s. The side walls of the houses were made of brick, and the timber roofs were covered with tar paper, which was later replaced by Borsodnádasd steel plates. The oldest houses were built in 1869–1870. Construction later continued on Salgó Road, which ran parallel to Acélgyári Road. Non-technical officers, doctors, and teachers were housed here, and additional workers' housing was also built. In the 2006 Salgótarján urban development plan, the houses on Acélgyári Road were still deemed worthy of preservation (Fig. 12):
“The renovation of the complex along Acélgyári Road is timely, the buildings can still be easily restored to their original condition. I propose that the municipality renovate the complex and keep the original residential function. The complex also includes buildings that merit individual protection. One is the aforementioned Franciscan parish church and monastery, which is already listed.”63
Steelworks road from the school to the mill in April 2023 (Photo by Vira Réka Nickel)
Citation: Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 68, 2; 10.1556/022.2024.00006
In the 2007–2013 cycle, the city's first social rehabilitation program included developments in the steelworks district, with some residential buildings demolished, although more have been renovated and modernized in recent years. According to public criticism, “from a technical and social point of view, more rational solutions could have been found than the renovation of municipally owned colony apartments in poor technical condition (e.g., new construction after demolition, or purchasing used apartments in other parts of the city).”64 All this is thought-provoking, as it was even included in the impact assessment of the Urban Development Plan, and it shows that industrial heritage is not part of public thinking, its preservation is not seen as justified, and its inherent potential is not sufficiently recognized. Opposite the school is the former teachers' housing, where Albert Bedő lived with his family in the 1930s. The house, with high ceilings, designed to meet bourgeois needs, now windowlessly awaits a change for the better (Fig. 13).
The former teachers' housing opposite the steelworks school in April 2023 (Photo by Vira Réka Nickel)
Citation: Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 68, 2; 10.1556/022.2024.00006
Only the larger, multi-story, originally eight-unit workers' housing at the front of the street (Acélgyári Rd. 4–18), nicknamed “Paupers' Palaces” and built in 1922, are locally listed (Fig. 14).65
Acelgyári Road looking towards the Catholic church in the spring of 2023, the “paupers' palaces” to the right (Photo by Vira Réka Nickel)
Citation: Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 68, 2; 10.1556/022.2024.00006
Salgó Road, parallel to Acélgyári Road, is unfortunately also partially a slum, and what's more, this slum is located in the most frequented part of the city. For this reason alone, it was necessary to develop the old colony houses as soon as possible. Residents of the apartment buildings were a mix of private homeowners and municipal tenants. In many cases, however, there was and still is no real difference in the housing and living conditions of the two strata.66 In the steelworks district, the complex of the former Reading Club and Officers' Casino on Salgó Road merits listing. In 1871, the year production began, the Reading Club, then known as the Leseverein, was founded, and a modest but dignified building with a theater was completed soon after. The Officers' Casino started operating on January 1, 1888 with 47 members, and was connected with the Workers' Casino by a skybridge. There were funny stories associated with this skybridge, because it was “one-way,” expressing the corporate hierarchy, as officers could cross it to the workers, but workers were not allowed to do so (Nagy – Nickel 2020:295). Colloquially, the connecting corridor was ironically called the “Bridge of Sighs.” The two buildings were completely conjoined in the 1960s, with an architecturally incongruous concrete-and-glass structure, but the original condition could be restored. The buildings played an important role not only in the life of the steelworks but also in the life of the town. On January 27, 1922, Salgótarján was declared “a town with a governing council” at a council meeting held in the great hall of the Officers' Casino. This event alone should justify its listing (Figs 15 and 16).
The Workers' Casino with the “skybridge” in the early 20th century (Dornyay Béla Museum Photo Collection, inv. 2419)
Citation: Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 68, 2; 10.1556/022.2024.00006
The former Officers' Casino in the spring of 2023 (Photo by Vira Réka Nickel)
Citation: Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 68, 2; 10.1556/022.2024.00006
In 1928, the corporate elementary school, today Petőfi Sándor Satellite School of the Salgótarján Elementary School, was built on Acélgyári Road, designed by architect Béla Marschalkó. The deliberate symmetry of the floor plan suggests order, harmony, and security, while its 27-meter-high towers evoke a citadel of knowledge in a romantically minded observer. In 1928, it had an indoor gym, a film screening room, a boiler room for central heating, a bath, well-equipped repositories, and a teaching garden. The classrooms were designed to accommodate more than 50 students each (Nickel 2017b:69). In 1957, the school was expanded with six more classrooms by raising the roof structure and creating an upper level. The building was completely renovated in 1987 (Fig. 17).67
The steelworks school in the spring of 2023 (Photo by Vira Réka Nickel)
Citation: Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 68, 2; 10.1556/022.2024.00006
Only two buildings in the steelworks district have a listed status: the Lutheran church and the Catholic church. The Lutheran church, built in 1892, stands on the edge of the steelworks district, on Kucord Hill overlooking the valley. The church, with its slender steeple, can be seen from afar and is a distinctive feature of the townscape. The Roman Catholic Franciscan church and monastery at the front of Acélgyári Road were designed by Pál Szontágh and consecrated on May 17, 1936, in honor of St. Joseph, patron saint of workers. An interesting fact about it is that it was built with public donations, and Pál Szontágh also provided his designs free of charge, as a donation.68
The “old” steelworks plant is not directly connected to the city centre, yet it comprises a large part of its urban land, covering a total of 21.6 ha. Soil contamination has reached high levels over the decades of operation, and its recultivation would be very important. Its 19th-century industrial halls were demolished following privatization, despite the initiatives and actions of local patriots. It is currently still privately owned, although the Salgótarján Economic Development Strategy includes a plan to purchase and recultivate the area. The objective is to set up the “Self-Sustaining City” pilot project here: by using the waste produced by Salgótarján and its surroundings in an environmentally friendly way in a cracker plant, the energy needs of its district heating and public lighting could be met, as well as electrifying the entire public transport system. The same plan also includes the relocation of a military goods plant and the construction of an electronic waste processing plant on the site of the former steelworks.69 The sporting heritage of the former steelworks was partially preserved, so the former Borbély Grove, also known as Dolinka, and the sports field had been renovated. The recreation area, planted with pine and acacia trees, was built on a hillside in the immediate vicinity of the factory after World War I and maintained by the factory's gardening department. There are playgrounds for children, outdoor cooking and spit-roasting areas for adults, and next to the sports field with stands, there is also a shooting gallery. This recreational green area was maintained and expanded during the state socialist era. Although it would have been a great opportunity to protect and preserve the iconic playground, during the most recent renovation, when “EU-compatible” toys were being installed, the famous boat swings were lost, and sadly, so did the almost hundred-year-old cast-iron merry-go-round, which is an irreplaceable loss. Today, the huge chestnut trees are the only reminder of where the summer bowling alleys used to stand behind the casinos, but the tennis courts are still there and are still privately run, even if not with the latest technology and care (Nagy – Nickel 2020:296).
The houses of the former Liptay Row, associated with the steelworks and located on the hillside next to Dolinka, would also merit protection, due to their unique atmosphere and uniform streetscape. The housing estate built under the directorship of Jenő B. Liptay (1919–1927) was more comfortable compared to other colony houses, with a harmonious overall appearance, and steep roofs lending the row of houses a “gabled cottage look.” Many of the houses on Jónásch Boulevard are still in their original condition (Fig. 18).
House on Jónásch Blvd (Photo by Vira Réka Nickel, 2023)
Citation: Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 68, 2; 10.1556/022.2024.00006
There is also a significant number of mining relics in the outskirts of Salgótarján. The biggest change in the spatial structure of the city began in the mid-20th century, when the neighboring villages were administratively annexed to Salgótarján: Baglyasalja, Zagyvapálfalva, Zagyvaróna, Somoskő, and Somoskőújfalu, as well as the mining settlements established at the turn of the 20th century: Rónabánya, Salgóbánya, Somlyóbánya, Rónafalu. Of the latter, Rónabánya and Salgóbánya have preserved their original townscape to this day. In the late 19th century, Rónabánya, built in a unique natural environment on the Róna Plateau, already had planned and regularly laid out streets, with uniform small plots and dwellings with a room-kitchen-pantry floorplan. These floorplans also echo the typical tripartite workers' dwellings. The colony's second construction period came in 1921, when they added a “magazin” (commissary) and a “casino” with a stage, a dance hall, a tavern, and a sub-officer's room. The new school with two classrooms was built at the same time, as well as five apartments above it. With its plumbing and electricity, it was one of the best equipped colonies. The 2006 Heritage Preservation Impact Assessment of Salgótarján states that it has been almost completely preserved in its original condition – hardly any additions or “renovations” have been made to it – and could be eligible for local protection, and a change of function has also been proposed, which would be justified by the proximity of the ski slope of Szilváskő.70
Houses in Salgóbánya in the spring of 2023 (Photo by Vira Réka Nickel)
Citation: Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 68, 2; 10.1556/022.2024.00006
The Salgóbánya colony complex, at the foot of the Salgó Castle ruins, has survived thanks to several alterations and reconstructions (Fig. 19). Construction began in 1868, with a second wave of construction in 1910. The colony is basically comprised of three streets, with tin-roofed, identical-looking, semi-detached houses standing on relatively small plots for the narrow streets. In the center there is a large park and the site of the former lido. Already in the early 20th century, a network of storm sewers ran under the street pavement,71 and plumbing and electricity were available to residents. In 1892, the Rimamurány-Salgótarján Ironworks Ltd. had built a representative casino in the same building as the commissary. The miners' church was built almost at the same time as the steelworks Franciscan church, in 1934 (Fig. 20).
Miners' church in Salgóbánya in the spring of 2023 (Photo by Vira Réka Nickel)
Citation: Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 68, 2; 10.1556/022.2024.00006
A reading club was founded here in 1899, and a few years later a band and a drama club. The idyllic setting of this sophisticated and beautiful little colony and its surroundings attracted tourists even in the early 20th century. From 1881, a narrow-gauge rack railway ran from the steelworks to Salgóbánya, all sections of which were used for passenger transport, and the Salgóbánya railway even transported tourists (Nickel 2017b:38; cf. Molnár 2020). There was mining in Salgó for almost a hundred years, the mines closing only in 1959. After nationalization, its residents changed and its built heritage underwent partial conversion. However, the miners' church and the casino have been renovated, and the latter has been given a new function. Built into the hillside, the former miners' casino with its distinctive turreted façade opened in 2014 as the House of GeoWonders. The primary aim of the House is to develop a geotourism program that provides interesting and active recreation for all ages.72 The building is locally protected (Figs 21 and 22).
The former casino in Salgóbánya, today Geocsodák Háza (House of GeoWonders) (Photo by Vira Réka Nickel)
Citation: Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 68, 2; 10.1556/022.2024.00006
This brings us to the perhaps most interesting point of the study in terms of social utility, since Salgótarján's past may even become its future, if only its current society, especially the city's management, would recognize the greatness and communal power inherent in its industrial past. A richly illustrated volume on the architecturally cohesive, streamlined image of Salgótarján's city center, humorously called “Lego City,” was published in 2022 (Hartmann 2022). The main street of the steelworks could also be a unique showcase for the early capitalist period, and the listing of the city's industrial heritage, with its buildings from the socialist period, would further enhance the city's distinctive image as an industrial town. A symbolically significant space on the mental map of the city, where the Rima – through socio-psychological means – organized into a community those who were born within its borders, those who inmigrated there, and even those who do not even live there today but feel a sense of belonging through their parents or grandparents. In many parts of Europe, similarly neglected, slums-turned-industrial colonies have been revived after renovation. The oldest industrial open-air museums in Europe can be found in Scandinavia; following their example, several municipalities in England have turned abandoned former industrial sites into their main source of income. Examples include the Black Country Living Museum73 in Dudley, the Ironbridge Gorge Museums in the famous Blists Hill,74 and the Beamish Museum can also be included here.75 Today, tourism is the main source of income in all these former industrial settlements.
In Salgótarján, the organizational framework for tourism was created through the establishment of the Salgótarján Branch of the Hungarian Carpathian Association (Magyarországi Kárpát Egyesület, MKE) in 1923 (Balogh 1995:68). For almost a century, the northern parts of Salgótarján have been a prime destination for Hungarian hikers. Every year, tens of thousands of hikers visit the castles of Salgó and Somoskő, the Medves plateau, the ski slopes of Eresztvény and Szilváskő. A significant step in Salgótarján's tourism boom was the opening of the Salgó Shelter, which was built in 1935, right next to the ski slopes of Eresztvény, with a warming room and a dining room. The Salgótarján Branch of the Hungarian Carpathian Association opened it on October 20 in a national ceremony. It is currently locally protected and has undergone conservation restoration. In Salgótarján's latest economic development strategy, the “Modern City Program” plans to implement the following investments from other domestic sources and from the funds provided by the next EU budget cycle: reconstruction of Salgó Castle, construction of parking lots in Salgóbánya, event space in Salgóbánya, giant playground, giant slides. Unfortunately, it also includes “the demolition of colony buildings in Salgóbánya,” which represents a loss to the collective industrial heritage, even if these are only the worst quality dwellings at the front of the road and do not extend to the more remote parts of the colony.76 The buildings that were deemed worthy of conservation by the 2006 impact assessment are no longer of any value. With the final demolition of the complex, one of the oldest mining colonies in Northern Hungary would disappear for good. In terms of the conservation and development of industrial heritage, only the renovation of the old library in Somoskő is planned to include a quarry exhibition space by 2030.
Salgótarján's industrial heritage is also significant in terms of transport, and could generate significant tourist traffic for the city, as it once had its own local means of transport thanks to the industrial companies: the industrial railway. The narrow-gauge industrial railway has made traffic in some parts of the city much faster. The 8 km long Salgótarján-Zagyva railway was built in 1871‒72, then extended to Inászó in 1893. In 1931, the connection between Salgótarján–Baglyasalja–Zagyvapálfalva was completed (Nickel 2017b:38). From 1881, Salgóbánya had been served by a narrow-gauge rack railway, overcoming a 222-meter difference in level with the help of two rack-and-pinion sections. The rack railway was closed in 1957 due to disuse, and the tracks were dismantled. Thus, it has not survived as an element of industrial heritage, but its reopening is nonetheless included in Salgótarján's latest strategic plan. Several track alternatives have been developed, with the most preferred and optimal lower terminus being Salgótarján Külső railroad yard, where a Railway Technology Park with 15–20 trains is planned. “From there, with the steelworks industrial railroad, one would get to the city center on a gauntlet track, from where the downtown and the underground Mining Museum can be easily accessed. From the Salgótarján stop, it would continue along the industrial siding through the Steelworks, where the Szénbunker (Coal Bunker) and the Király-tárna (King's Shaft) could be visited. Before the factory, there would be a stop at Szojka Ferenc Stadium, and beyond it, at Köztemető (Public Cemetery). From there, the train would climb up to Salgóbánya on the original tracks and two rack-and-pinion sections, with stops at individual natural and industrial historical monuments, such as Kútház, Angyalrét, and Brenzalja. In Salgóbánya, the Zenthe Ferenc Memorial Park and the Medves Hotel stops would be built. The latter could be the final stop and also the starting point of a mine tour by rail in the mine shaft that's there. This narrow-gauge rack railway and its associated attractions would provide a complex touristic product, and thanks to the stops installed, it could also be used for public commuter traffic. In any case, it would significantly contribute to the development and attractiveness of Salgótarján and its region (Fig. 23).”77
The former narrow-gauge railway (Dornyay Béla Museum Photo Collection, inv. 763)
Citation: Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 68, 2; 10.1556/022.2024.00006
The issue of the Somlyó viaduct has been raised again and again in the local press and among local patriots. The 200-meter-long viaduct, resting on eight reinforced concrete arches, rose 33 m above the valley. It was built in 1911‒12, designed by Italian engineers. It was used for transporting from the former Teréz Shaft to the Zagyva loading dock in Salgótarján. After the Teréz Shaft was closed, the valley leading to it was filled with mining spoil. The tunnel next to the bridge was blasted and the viaduct gradually became one with nature. By the 1960s, there were few signs of the monumental structure that once stood there, but perhaps it could be excavated and restored. The 2006 heritage preservation impact assessment includes an enthusiastic description of it: “The viaduct is a reinforced concrete bridge with a superstructure supported by piers and spanning across dynamic reinforced concrete arches. The rhythm of the slender piers is accentuated by the elliptical reinforced concrete arches, with the openwork, double arches at the top, and the arched bracing spanning between them.”78 The latest heritage preservation impact assessment, however, does not mention it.
Further research issues and prospects
The industrial society of Salgótarján formed a well-defined local community with a sense of identity. The management of the companies and factories, the workers' welfare institutions, the managed leisure programs and facilities, and of course the built environment of the colonies played a major role in all this. Wasting their cultural, intangible, and tangible heritage would be a fatal mistake. I believe it is very important to continue lifeways research, and to link the results back to current society through exhibitions, documentaries, or cultural events. I plan to visit local heritage preservation NGOs, and I also intend to interview the miners' band, representatives of the Völgyváros Association, and members of the local Roma Municipality, among others.
The industrial conlonies were a special environment not only for the adults but also for the children growing up there. I have already addressed the lifeways and society of the children growing up in the steelworks colony in my monograph (Nickel 2017b); wanting to continue my research on childhood, I find it important to assess and analyze the current situation in relation to historical precedents (Fig. 24).
Young working-class football fans in the early 20th century (Dornyay Béla Museum Photo Collection, bequest of Vilmos Gábler)
Citation: Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 68, 2; 10.1556/022.2024.00006
A particularly interesting spin off of the research is how companies have dealt with environmental pollution in the past and what options do today's city authorities have to clean up brownfield sites. Creating green spaces seems to be the best solution at the moment, because certain plant species can rapidly clear the soil, and green spaces make the urban environment more livable and pleasant.79 But one serious problem looms as an obstacle to rehabilitation. One of the biggest obstacles to the utilization of properties categorized as industrial heritage is that they are almost invariably privately owned. European Union grants provide only minimal funding for the necessary purchase of property, and the municipality does not have sufficient resources of its own. In the long term, this issue can perhaps be resolved by legal means, and there are examples in Western Europe where, if no business tax is generated on a property classified as industrial for a long period of time, the property is transferred to the state or municipality. This would be important because private owners rarely do brownfield remediation—these are almost always public sector projects.80
Public criticism shows that industrial heritage is not necessarily an integral part of local public thinking in a historic industrial town. Its conservation is not considered justified, and its potential is rarely explored. The problems inherent in the management of industrial heritage, such as the issue of slums or the unpleasant vista of rust belts, are not to be solved but rather eliminated. Local activists often disagree with these solutions but find it difficult to get their suggestions across to a sympathetic ear. The kinds of grassroots initiatives taking place in the city today and the ways they are trying to assert their ideas is the subject of further investigation. As an ethnographer, I consider fieldwork in former industrial colonies, participant observation, and in-depth interviews to be of primary importance, which can facilitate the mapping and documentation of cultural heritage. Although nostalgia (just like trauma) can significantly alter one's sense of time and the “hue” of one's memories, interviews along with source criticism are usable, even for the retrospective mapping of certain neighborhoods, mental maps, and, of course, the mapping of “know how,” work organization, and life strategies. The former industrial society represents an important cultural heritage, not only in sports, dress, and work songs but also in lifeways and culture. Its members are proud of their past, their strength, their perseverance, their creativity, and their solidarity. The protection and presentation of industrial heritage is also important for the city's identity while the built environment is undergoing a radical transformation, which is why buildings that merit preservation should be given a new function as soon as possible so that they may remain an integral part of the settlement. It is this great work that I wish to contribute to with my research on industrial heritage.
Acknowledgments
The research was funded by projects ELKH SA-35/2021 Heritagization, Cultural Memory, Identity, and NRDI K_22 142797 (K_22 143295) Heritage Constructions in Contemporary Community Settings – Identity, Memory, Representation.
Archival resources
MNL OL Z 40. 31./ 587. Pesti Magyar Kereskedelmi Bank [Hungarian Commercial Bank of Pest] Projects, reports of Egyesült Magyarhoni Üveggyárak Rt. [United Hungarian Glassworks Ltd.].
MNL BFL = Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár, Budapest Főváros Levéltára [National Archives of Hungary, Budapest City Archives].
NmMM Adattár 1009/71 1–70. Ferenc Gyuris: Életem és emlékeim… [My life and memories…].
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Vira Réka Nickel, PhD, ethnographer, historian, research fellow at the Institute of Ethnology, HUN-REN BTK. Her main research interests are industrial heritage, personal and formal links with the industrial past, as well as former industrial workers' lifeways in Hungary, including public catering, and foodways. She is actively engaged in fieldwork and collects ethnographic and lifeways histories – primarily in Hungary, mainly in Borsod, Nógrád, and Heves counties – regarding industrial heritage, the cultural heritage of industry, and the utilization of built industrial heritage sites. She also conducts archival research on the lifeways, land use, and diet of 19th- and 20th-century industrial workers. Her monograph, Rimaiak a gyárak völgyében [“Rimaites” in the Valley of the Mills], was published in 2017.
Non-exhaustive list of ethnographers studying the lifeways of the Hungarian working class: Attila Paládi-Kovács, József R. Nagy, Judit Dobák, Ágota Lídia Ispán, Nóra Kiss, Vira Réka Nickel. The lifeways of Hungarian workers who emigrated to America was studied by Balázs Balogh. Historians: Tibor Valuch, Eszter Bartha, Eszter Zsófia Tóth, Sándor Horváth, Péter Alabán, Zsófia Kisőrsi, Tibor Vass, Györgyi Csontos, Péter Nagy, Györgyi Németh.
The reason for the succes of Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, lay not only in developing a mass production technique, but also in raising the wages and living standards of workers, thus motivating them to productivity. Ford demonstrated that capitalism can be rationalized and moralized. For more on Fordism and Taylorism in Hungary, see: Kuczi 2011; Nagy 2021.
For a detailed discussion, see Eyal et al. 1998. Social historians of former industrial towns can provide great help in this confrontation through their comprehensive monographs, such as Péter Alabán on Ózd (Alabán 2020), Ágota Lídia Ispán on Tiszaújváros (Ispán 2020), Péter Nagy on Ózd (Nagy 2016), Sándor Horváth on Dunaújváros (Horváth 2004), or the author of the present study on Salgótarján (Nickel 2017b).
All interviews cited in the study were conducted by the author.
City of Salgótarján Integrated Urban Development Strategy 2021–2027. https://www.salgotarjan.hu/wp-content/uploads/fejlesztesidokumentumok_20220629_its.pdf (accessed May 4, 2023).
Regional Case Study: Salgótarján. Evaluation of the effectiveness of community-based urban rehabilitation, 2021.10.31. https://www.palyazat.gov.hu/download.php?objectId=1095506 (accessed May 4, 2023).
For more on the Salgótarján Coal Mining Co., see Dzsida 1944; Szvircsek 1992.
Act XIII of 1891 on the suspension of industrial work on Sundays.
Regional Case Study, Salgótarján. Evaluation of the effectiveness of community-based urban rehabilitation, 2021.10.31. https://www.palyazat.gov.hu/download.php?objectId=1095506 (accessed May 4, 2023).
A German-speaking ethnic group. Their name is derived from the German word Zips (Spiš) and refers to the fact that they originally lived in the region of Spiš (in present-day Slovakia and Poland).
Excerpt from an interview with A.Á. (The interview was conducted by Vira Réka Nickel, 2009).
On the cultural heritage of the Ózd steel mill, see: Valuch 2019.
For details, see: Nickel 2018b.
Descendants of the upper working class families still have an emotional attachment to the former company. For details, see Giddens 2002.
For details, see: Nickel 2015, 2017b; for Ózd: Nagy 2015.
The phenomenon of commuting has been monographically studied by Zsófia Kisőrsi (Kisőrsi 2021).
For details, see: Nickel 2018b.
Excerpt from an interview with B.T. (Vira Réka Nickel, 2009).
For more on sports in the steelworks, see Nickel 2017a.
Two or three suits, a tailcoat, a tuxedo, a spring coat, a winter coat, a few shirts, two or three pairs of shoes, one or two soft hats, and a top hat (F. Dózsa 2014:394). See also: Nickel 2015.
MNL OL Z 40.31.587. Reports of the Pesti Magyar Kereskedelmi Bank [Hungarian Commercial Bank of Pest] Projects, Egyesült Magyarhoni Üveggyárak Rt. [United Hungarian Glassworks Ltd.].
Excerpt from a 2016 interview with M.É., a glassworker born in 1931.
On the top of the hierarchy were the so-called “triads,” i.e., glassmakers who worked in threes in the hot shop: a gaffer, a blower, and an annealer. In essence, they were the most distinguished among the workers and were accordingly seated at the same table. The second rung belonged to the glassblowers who worked in a “full plot,” that is, in a formation of one master – one assistant. They were also seated at their own table. The third category was the half-plotters: usually unmarried bachelors and occupants of the so-called attic rooms. For details, see: NmMM Database: 1009/71, 1–70. Ferenc Gyuris: Életem és emlékeim… [My life and memories…] (Cited in Nickel 2017b:38).
MNL BFL XI. 104.2.2.1. Documents of the Budapest-Salgótarjáni Gépgyár és Vasöntő Rt. [Budapest-Salgótarján Machine Factory and Iron Foundry Ltd.], Administrative documents.
A Munka, 1925.08.29 (Cited in Nickel 2017b:32).
In the steel mill, essential parts, such as generators, were hidden away so that they could not be taken and the factory restarted and electricity restored as soon as possible after the war. I addressed similar anecdotes and stories in my study: Nickel 2018a.
On laying the foundations of state socialism and building a Soviet-style socialist industry, see the monographic work of Pittaway 2012.
The situation of women workers is addressed in detail by Eszter Bartha (Bartha 2023).
I addressed children's nutrition in the steelworks in detail in my study: Nickel 2020. On the nutrition of workers, see: Báti 2020. On the development of public catering, see: Greiner et al. 2019.
Ample information on typical Hungarian workers' lifeways, life strategies, and everyday life in Hungary during the era of state socialism (1949–1989) is provided in Valuch 2021.
The new economic mechanism was a comprehensive reform of the management and planning of the socialist economy in Hungary, which was introduced on January 1, 1968. The reform, among other things, reduced the role of central planning and increased the autonomy of enterprises in production and investment, and liberalized prices, meaning that while prices were fixed and kept low by the authorities, prices of certain products could be adjusted to market demands.
Excerpt from a 2012 interview with N.G., from the unpublished collection of memoirs called “Rima sirató” (Lament for Rima).
Wamsler – History. https://www.wamsler.hu/tortenet (accessed May 4, 2023).
There is a noticable exodus of unemployed workers from their former places of residence in Hungary as well as other industrial regions of post-socialist countries, and an increase in despair, alcoholism, and depression that follow job loss. Two studies by Tibor Valuch examine this process in detail (Valuch 2023a, 2023b).
Salgótarján 2030 Economic Development Strategy, April 2021, Municipality of the City of Salgótarján. https://www.salgotarjan.hu/wp-content/uploads/fejlesztesidokumentumok_20210625_gazdasagfejlesztesi_strategia_2030.pdf (accessed May 4, 2023).
Excerpt from an interview with N. V., the last representative of a dynasty of steelworkers. 2023.
City of Salgótarján Sustainable Urban Development Strategy 2021–2027, https://www.nograd.hu/files/eloterjesztesek/2015/pdf/terf/20220419/20220419_10.pdf (accessed May 5, 2023).
Regional case study, Salgótarján. Evaluation of the effectiveness of community-based urban rehabilitation 2021.10.31. https://www.palyazat.gov.hu/download.php?objectId=1095506 (accessed May 4, 2023).
Ruhr area rehabilitation program, www.route-industriekultur.de (accessed November 2, 2023).
International Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites (The Venice Charter 1964), https://www.icomos.org/images/DOCUMENTS/Charters/venice_e.pdf (accessed October 31, 2023).
https://ticcih.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/NTagilCharter.pdf (accessed May 5, 2023).
For The Dublin Principles, see: https://ticcih.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/GA2011_ICOMOS_TICCIH_joint_principles_EN_FR_final_20120110.pdf (accessed May 5, 2023).
The directives of the head of the Prime Minister's Office cited in Németh 2020:320.
Official website of Hungarian Heritage Protection: https://oroksegvedelem.kormany.hu/ (accessed May 5, 2023).
The various aspects of heritage protection, using the example of the Diósgyőr ironworks colony, is described in Dobák 2020.
The revitalization of the Salgótarján hollow glass factory – Tamás Tássik, thesis (2020). https://epiteszforum.hu/a-salgotarjani-oblosuveggyar-revitalizalasa--tacsik-tamas-diplomaterve (accessed May 5, 2023).
Website of the Factory Arena of Miskolc: https://factoryarena.hu/. (accessed May 4, 2023).
Ruhr area rehabilitation program, www.route-industriekultur.de (accessed November 2, 2023).
The Zsolnay Cultural Quarter was the largest investment of the Pécs 2010 European Capitals of Culture project, which took place on the site of the world-famous Zsolnay porcelain manufactory in Pécs. https://culture.ec.europa.eu/essen-pecs-and-istanbul(accessed October 31, 2023).
Today, part of the former Gasworks site is a 21st-century industrial park, Graphisoft Park, which is home to many start-up companies, two universities, and more than 60 biotech and IT development companies. https://www.graphisoftpark.hu/en/vibe#content (accessed October 31, 2023).
https://meonline.hu/en/aktualis/szcena/kulturgyar-projekt-ozd/ (accessed October 31, 2023).
Salgótarján 2030 Economic Development Strategy, April 2021, Municipality of the City of Salgótarján. https://www.salgotarjan.hu/wp-content/uploads/fejlesztesidokumentumok_20210625_gazdasagfejlesztesi_strategia_2030.pdf (accessed May 4, 2023).
Go-kart track, cyber jump track with trampolines and climbing wall, two outdoor playgrounds, and a traffic park.
Extreme sports opportunities, shooting sports, roller skating and wall-climbing course, parkour course.
A suitable environment for events, conferences, business, scientific, or educational events, and outdoor, even festival-type programs.
However, he does not go into a more detailed analysis.
Excerpt from an interview with M.A., a former glassworker. 2022.
Research Repository – Glass City. https://dornyaymuzeum.hu/kiallitasok/tanulmanyi-raktaraink/tanulmanyi-raktar-uvegvaros/ (accessed May 5, 2023).
Interview with K.Cs, the last member of a working class dynasty. 2022.
Website of the Salgótarján mining museum: https://dornyaymuzeum.hu/banyaszati-kiallitohely/ (accessed May 5, 2023).
City of Salgótarján Sustainable Urban Development Strategy 2021–2027, 89. https://www.nograd.hu/files/eloterjesztesek/2015/pdf/terf/20220419/20220419_10.pdf (accessed May 5, 2023).
On Hungarian worker colonies in the USA and their “boarding” houses, see Balogh 2017, 2018.
City of Salgótarján Urban Development Plan Heritage Preservation Impact Assessment. Salgótarján 2006. https://webtara.kozadat.hu/webfarma/download/arch.stmjvonkormanyzata/szsza/kapcs_szerv_vez/szerv_vez/1489998528614-orokseghatastan.pdf (accessed May 5, 2023).
City of Salgótarján Urban Development Plan Heritage Preservation Impact Assessment. Salgótarján 2006. https://webtara.kozadat.hu/webfarma/download/arch.stmjvonkormanyzata/szsza/kapcs_szerv_vez/szerv_vez/1489998528614-orokseghatastan.pdf (accessed May 5, 2023).
City of Salgótarján Sustainable Urban Development Strategy 2021–2027, https://www.nograd.hu/files/eloterjesztesek/2015/pdf/terf/20220419/20220419_10.pdf (accessed May 5, 2023). For details on the houses, see: Nickel 2017b:92.
Regional case study, Salgótarján. Evaluation of the effectiveness of community-based urban rehabilitation, 2021. 10. 31. https://www.palyazat.gov.hu/download.php?objectId=1095506 (accessed May 5, 2023).
City of Salgótarján Urban Development Plan Heritage Preservation Impact Assessment. Salgótarján 2006. https://webtara.kozadat.hu/webfarma/download/arch.stmjvonkormanyzata/szsza/kapcs_szerv_vez/szerv_vez/1489998528614-orokseghatastan.pdf (accessed May 5, 2023).
The history of the arrival of the Franciscans in Salgótarján and the founding of the parish was addressed in a study (R. Várkonyi 2005).
Salgótarján 2030 Economic Development Strategy, April 2021, Municipality of the City of Salgótarján. https://www.uni-miskolc.hu/files/12137/Salgotarjan_2030.pdf (accessed May 5, 2023).
City of Salgótarján Urban Development Plan Heritage Preservation Impact Assessment. Salgótarján 2006, 66. https://webtara.kozadat.hu/webfarma/download/arch.stmjvonkormanyzata/szsza/kapcs_szerv_vez/szerv_vez/1489998528614-orokseghatastan.pdf(accessed May 5, 2023).
City of Salgótarján Urban Development Plan Heritage Preservation Impact Assessment. Salgótarján 2006, 66. https://webtara.kozadat.hu/webfarma/download/arch.stmjvonkormanyzata/szsza/kapcs_szerv_vez/szerv_vez/1489998528614-orokseghatastan.pdf. (accessed May 5, 2023).
Local Equal Opportunities Program, Municipality of the City of Salgótarján 2018–2023, 54. https://www.salgotarjan.hu/wpcontent/uploads/eselyegyenloseg_20190124_helyi_eselyegyenlosegi_program.pdf (accessed May 5, 2023).
Website of the Black Country Living Museum: https://www.bclm.co.uk/about/the-museums-story/1.htm (accessed May 5, 2023).
Website of the Ironbridge Gorge Museums: https://www.ironbridge.org.uk/our-story/timeline/ (accessed May 5, 2023).
Website of the Beamish Open Air Museum: http://www.beamish.org.uk/about/history-of-beamish/ (accessed May 5, 2023).
Salgótarján 2030 Economic Development Strategy, April 2021, Municipality of the City of Salgótarján. https://www.uni-miskolc.hu/files/12137/Salgotarjan_2030.pdf (accessed May 5, 2023).
Salgótarján 2030 Economic Development Strategy, April 2021, Municipality of the City of Salgótarján. https://www.uni-miskolc.hu/files/12137/Salgotarjan_2030.pdf (accessed May 5, 2023).
City of Salgótarján Urban Development Plan Heritage Preservation Impact Assessment. Salgótarján 2006, 117. https://webtara.kozadat.hu/webfarma/download/arch.stmjvonkormanyzata/szsza/kapcs_szerv_vez/szerv_vez/1489998528614-orokseghatastan.pdf (accessed May 5, 2023).
Possibilities for remediation assessed in: Adorján et al. 2015.
I would like to thank Gyula Lőrincz, Head of the Department of Planning and Zoning in the Municipal Office of Nógrád County, for the information provided orally.