Danube Interlude - Kalocsa, Hungary

Our first excursion in Hungary was to Kalocsa (KUH-loo-cha). Kalocsa is located six miles from the Danube River in the Puszta, the Great Plains of Hungary, and around 90 miles from Budapest. First, we went to the Paprika Museum in Kalocsa, the largest producer of paprika in Hungary. Our second stop of the day was the House of Folk Arts Museum. The Folk Art Museum presents quintessential Hungarian Folk Art: the embroidery of Kalocsa, done from freehand drawings, and wall painting, done with simple paint in pulverized form mixed with milk. Our final stop was at a horse farm, where Hungarian cowboys put on quite a “Wild West” show.

Paprika Museum 

Granite marker for the Paprika Museum

Paprika Museum building

The Paprika Museum is located in a very stately and large residence in Kalocsa.  It is filled with everything imaginable about paprika, including how it was grown, harvested manually and processed in the traditional way. Before the Industrial Revolution, farmers would string all their ripe peppers by hand, hang them up in a protected place to dry, and then complete the drying process in large earthenware ovens. The dried peppers were crushed underfoot, then ground into a fine powder by hand, using a huge mortar with a large pestle. 

A vintage grinding machine

A vintage weighing machine

Paprika processing machine on the grounds of the museum

Paprika drying station

The embroidery of Kalocsa uses freehand drawings and a mixed style of stitching; it is not bound to any form, color or stitching technique. No pattern is symmetrical, even if it looks symmetrical at first glance. Examine the embroidery closely, and you can see differences in the drawing and the colors of the pattern. 

Drapes and wall painting with a paprika motif in the museum

Table cloth with Kalocsa embroidery. 

I would expect parts of this design to be symmetrical, but I can’t find any.

Vintage photo of paprika peppers at market

Harvesting paprika peppers starts at the end of the first week in September and lasts for about a month. More than 8,000 acres of fields around Kalocsa are filled with farm workers picking bright red peppers and stacking them in small wooden crates or big plastic mesh bags. 

After being picked, the peppers are left to rest for two to three weeks, to let their flavor and color develop even further. Today modern automatic machines wash, dry, crush, sort and grind the peppers all in one continuous process. 

There are paprika products for sale at the museum. I bought some because I thought it must be the best paprika powder available anywhere in the world. I tasted a sample, and although it was the mild kind, it seemed to have a stronger flavor than the paprika we buy in the grocery store in the US. 

Paprika shop

During September the entire population of the town, as well as a great many tourists,  celebrate the pepper harvest with a paprika festival called "Kalocsa Paprika Days." There is also a  Paprika Harvest Parade, complete with local bands and folk-dancing groups, and a Paprika Harvest Ball in the evening. This small agricultural town now attracts travelers from all over Europe to celebrate the paprika harvest and its festivities. 

Becky in a cutout board at the Paprika Museum

My mother’s family is Hungarian, so this was a special day for me.

House of Folk Arts Museum - Kalocsa, Hungary  

The Folk Art Museum is located inside a 200-year-old house that represents the interior of a typical Hungarian peasant home. The house is decorated with the brightly-colored flowers of Kalocsa embroidery, wall paintings and peasant furnishings. The artistry is striking, especially since the designs are hand-made from free-hand drawings and offer countless variations; no two patterns are alike. 

House of Folk Arts Museum

The farm-house was built on a small hill in order to protect it from flooding of the nearby Danube River. It was constructed of adobe, which kept the rooms warm in winter and cool in summer. The house has a thatched roof, and you can see peppers hung to dry under the eaves of the roof.

Wall painting with crucifix in a Hungarian cottage 

The walls are whitewashed before the painting is done. Look closely at the design--no two patterns are alike. The most popular decorations are the rose and tulip, but there are also many other flowers that appear: lilies, pansies, forget-me-nots, carnations, snapdragons, foxgloves, lilacs, poppies, cornflowers--and even a few birds.

Wall painting and whitewashed, decorated oven, whose opening is in the kitchen

On the wall is a painting of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a Catholic object of devotion

An ornate hanging lamp over a dining table

Decorated cradle and dresser  

Display case with embroidered blouse

Embroidered table cloth, runners, place mats and doilies on display

Outside of the museum,  there is an ornately decorated  totem-like structure with a stylized sculpture of a woman at the top under the “roof.” The structure had been placed in farm fields, so the woman may have represented the mythological Hungarian goddess of birth, fertility and harvests. I don’t know for sure that the sculpture is of a pagan goddess, but if so, it must be a throwback to the era before Hungarians were Christianized, after which the Virgin Mary came to assume the place of the goddess. 

Fertility goddess (?)

Close-up of the woman at the top of the totem

There is a gift shop on the premises that sells items with the embroidery of Kalocsa and other Hungarian souvenirs.

I have to admire the residents of Kalocsa. They have found ways to preserve their cultural heritage, share the beauty of their folk arts with the rest of the world and cultivate a thriving tourist industry, all at the same time.

Bakod Puszta Horse Farm and Equestrian Show - Kalocsa, Hungary

Entry to the farm

At our last stop of the day, we visited a horse farm in the Great Plains of Hungary. The farm is about 500 acres, and we saw indigenous breeds of animals such as the Hungarian grey cattle and Racka sheep, with its spiral horns, which date from the Hungarian Conquest in the tenth century. 

Hay bales on the farm

On arriving at the farm, we were greeted by a “Magyar” cowboy (originally a warrior horseman) and were treated to wine and a slice of  paprika  bread before the equestrian show and apricot brandy, a specialty of the area, after the show.

Welcome refreshments for visitors on arrival

During the equestrian show, “Magyar” cowboys displayed horsemanship skills, such as whip-wielding, maneuvering carts, and daredevil bareback horse riding. The cowboys also commanded their horses to assume positions, such as lying flat on the ground to avoid being seen, a real-life skill that was of use during enemy encounters. The show reminded me that the cowboy mystique existed in far-flung places, such as Hungary, much earlier in history than in the American West in our own country.

The cowboys showed whip-wielding accuracy.

Six cowboys abreast

The cowboys had the horses sit and then lie down, and the cowboys even stood on top of the reclining horses. The horses didn’t seem to mind.

The horses sit down on command.

The horses lie down.

The cowboy stands atop the prone horse.

The cowboys did maneuvers with a three-horse wagon, a four-horse wagon and finally a cowboy rode bareback on ten horses who were not tethered to each other.

Three-horse wagon maneuvers

Four-horse wagon maneuvers

Hungarian Grey cattle, also known as Hungarian Steppe cattle, is an ancient breed of domestic beef cattle indigenous to Hungary.

Bareback riding on ten horses not tethered together

Bareback riding on ten horses

A professional photographer took individual photos of every person at the show with a young lady in native Hungarian dress, and the photos were available for purchase at the end of our visit. After the show, a gypsy wagon took visitors for a tour of the ranch during which they could get acquainted with the special flora and fauna of the Puszta region.