VIRTUAL PORT TALK: Kalocsa
Channel: Leonard Miron
Date: 2020-05-23

KALOCSA
- Kalocsa lies 142 km (88 miles) south of Budapest. It is situated in a marshy but highly productive district, near the left bank of the Danube River. Historically it had greater political and economic importance than at present.
- Kalocsa is one of the oldest towns in Hungary. The present archbishopric, founded about 1135, is a development of a bishopric said to have been founded in 1000 by King Stephen the Saint. It suffered much during the 16th century from the invasions of Ottoman soldiers, who ravaged the country.
- A large part of the town was destroyed by a fire in 1875, before buildings were constructed of more fireproof materials and when many used open fires for heating and cooking.
- Kalocsa was an archdiocese founded by King Stephen in the early years of the Hungarian state. The first archbishop of the town was Asztrik, who brought the crown to Stephen from the Pope.
- The industrial development of the 19th and 20th century did not come to Kalocsa. The railway was built too late, in 1882
- During World War II, the Germans required the deportation of all the Jewish people in the summer of 1944. Most of them were murdered in the Nazi concentration camps. Some survivors returned after the end of the war, but the Jewish community never thrived again. Most Jews left for good. Communist authorities converted the synagogue into a public library.
- One of the main attractions is the Holy Trinity Square (Szentháromság tér), named after the Holy Trinity column, which is standing next to the Cathedral. On the pedestal can be seen St. John of Nepomuk, St. Sebastianus and St. Florian. Opposite the Cathedral is standing the statue of St. Stephen. It was erected by the town to the 950th anniversary of the king's death.
- Another attraction of the town is the high building of the Archbishops Cathedral standing in the middle of the Holy Trinity Square. The present church is the fourth built here. The first was built during the reign of King Stephen in the first decade of the 11th century by Asztrik. He was the first person who called himself archbishop in Kalocsa. He was also the one who brought the Holy Crown from Rome. The two towers can be seen even from a great distance. Between them there is a connecting bridge on which are three statues: St Peter and Paul (1755) and in the middle Virgin Maria
- The archbishop palace is a baroque-style monument, which was built in the 1760s. It stands to the north of the Cathedral. In the Ceremonial Hall there are astronomical gadgets and maps from the Middle Ages. Here can be seen the first certified replica of the Hungarian Holy Crown with the sceptre and the orb. The Archbishops Library boasts 150,000 volumes in Latin, German as well as French. Here can be seen one of the Bibles written by Martin Luther and there is also the oldest Hungarian Bible-translation, from 1540.
- Growing paprika in the Kalocsa region (mid-southern part of Hungary) goes back to the 18th century, but industrial production only started in the 1920’s. Kalocsa was in strong competition with Szeged, especially in the sweet paprika (édes paprika) market. Their extra strength is that Kalocsa folk dresses are beautiful and girls look pretty with the paprika.
- Paprika as such only came to Europe in the 16th century thanks to the doctor of Columbus, Diego Chanca. Paprika (or capsicum in Latin) comes from Central America. Europeans were quite suspicious about the new plant: for two centuries it was only used as a decoration. Paprika came to Hungary in the 16th century: there are documents from 1570 about the ‘red Turkish pepper‘ as it was called at that time. In the 17th century there are already family names with Paprika.
- Paprika became a popular part of cuisine in the 1780’s in Hungary. The technique of making sweet paprika was gradually developed in Hungary from the 1850’s by getting rid of the seeds and stems, only keeping the pods. One of the most popular TV channel in Hungary is TV Paprika: a cooking program
- The embroidery of Kalocsa belongs to folk embroidery groups which uses freehand drawings and mixed style of stitching, not bound to any form, color or stitching technique. The character of the original folk embroidery of Kalocsa is, that in drawing and in color the same motifs twice can't appear. There is no well known folk artist in Kalocsa who will repeat exactly a motif. If on an embroidery of Kalocsa the pattern is symmetrical and the motif repeats itself it is not an original folk art. Even if a pattern looks symmetrical at first glance, when examined in details one can see differences in the drawing and colors of the pattern as the picture below shows it clearly. It is impossible to count the motives used in the folk art of Kalocsa because of the countless variations, but Veronika Kákonyi, of Szakmár, collected 529 basic motif.