“This is my homeland” After
many years, my father, Jenö Horvat, returns to the villages of the Slovene Raba
region and remembers his days of youth. Joël
Gerber and I accompany him on this trip back to the past. A report by Tibor Horvat, 06/08/18 We begin our little trip in Monošter, from where we drive in the direction of Andovci/Orfalu. Our way leads
over Zsida-Hegy, which is a small hill in the
southern direction of Monošter. On this road
lies Števanovci/Apátistvánfalva,
the birthplace of Jenö Horvat.
As we reach this village he suddenly utters a
remark: “This is my homeland…” Here we have a short break
in order to show him the big stone memorial, which commemorates those
inhabitants of Števanovci/Apátistvánfalva
who died in the Second World War.* József Bedi, Jenö Horvat’s grandfather, is immortalised on this
monument as well. József Bedi
fell in battle in Vienna in 1915, which is also written
on the tombstone of József Bedi, on the cemetery of Števanovci
/Apátistvánfalva. The inscription is written in Windish language (Porabščina) and above the inscription one can
see a photograph showing József Bedi wearing the soldier’s uniform of the former
Danube monarchy ( We get back into the car and
drive to Andovci /Orfalu.
Shortly before leaving Števanovci /Apátistvánfalva, Jenö
Horvat points at a house (“Šporani”), which lies alone in the forest and
tells us that his father, József Horvat, was born and raised there. After arriving in Orfalu he says that former Orfalu,
which he had known as a child and teenager respectively, made a much more
neat impression than it does today. Every peasant used to take care of
his own fields and woods and as a consequence every square metre of the land
had been tilled. However, today’s Orfalu is
strongly characterised by bushes and high pastureland. A reason for this is
the fact that many inhabitants have moved to the cities because agriculture
was a source of income, which didn’t pay anymore. What is more, in the
course of the nationalisation in the agricultural sector after the Second
World War, the peasants had hardly any influence on their former fields and
woods. In Andovci/Orfalu
we leave the car on a forest track and walk in the direction of the Slovene
border. In Jenö Horvat’s
times of youth in the beginning of the 1950s, there were reports about
Hungarian or Yugoslav border soldiers, which had been shot
almost every week, my father explains. In the beginning of the 1950s
Tito’s The next stage of our trip
leads us to Verica-Ritkarovci/Kétvölgy.
In order to get to Verica-Ritkarovci/Kétvölgy from Andovci/Orfalu we have to pass through Števanovci
/Apátistvánfalva again. While passing
by the municipality building of Števanovci /Apátistvánfalva my father remembers that the ringer of the village used to live in a small
house near the building. This ringer was blind and therefore he had to feel
his way to church, which was about 200 m long, in order to be able to ring
the church bells. In about ten minutes we reach Verica-Ritkarovci/Kétvölgy. My father says, correctly, that he
remembers Verica-Ritkarovci/Kétvölgy
as a settlement which consisted of two villages, Permise and Ritkaháza.
From Permise we drive to Ritkaháza
on a narrow and winding road. After having arrived in Ritkaháza
my father says that there hadn’t been any fundamental changes in this
village in the last fifty years. The image of the village lives up to its
name because “ritka” means
“scarce/seldom” and in fact, the houses of this village appear
only scattered. Since the road of Ritkaháza does not continue anymore we turn and
drive back to Permise. In Permise
my father spots a field, on which had been placed small mucks of cow and
horse dung. He remembers that his parents used to follow a similar dung
technique. Our next destination is Gornji Senik/Felsõszölnök.
Because there is no direct road from Permise and Kétvölgy respectively, and the road over Monošter is almost forty kilometres long, we decide
to take the road on Slovene territory to Gornji Senik/Felsõszölnök. Some years after the
political changes 1989/90 a border crossing leading from Kétvölgy
to neighbouring Čepinci had been built. From Čepinci we continue over the hilly scenery of the
Mura region (Prekmurje/Pomurje)
to Martinje, a neighbouring village from Felsõszölnök. While driving through the
picturesque northern Mura region my father mentions that the local
inhabitants live on more strongly from agriculture than in the Slovene Raba
region. The fields had been cultivated and the meadows mowed. An explanation
for this is the fact that the nationalisations in the agricultural sector in
Tito’s After having arrived in Felsõszölnök we have a little
refreshment in a garden restaurant (Gostilna).
Meanwhile, church service ends and numerous churchgoers, among whom there are many women wearing black
clothes, leave the church. My father follows the conversation of the
villagers in Slovene dialect (Porabščina)
in suspense. “It’s a beautiful feeling to hear my mother tongue
again...”, my father says excitedly. Abroad he
hardly ever has the possibility to speak or to hear Porabščina.
Furthermore, when he visits his siblings in Števanovci
/Apátistvánfalva, very often
Hungarian is spoken because his nephews and nieces,
unfortunately, hardly speak Porabščina
fluently. Refreshed, we drive in the
direction of Dolnji Senik/Alsószölnök. “When I was a
teenager, I haven’t been in Felsõszölnök
and Alsószölnök often”, my
father says. Due to the big distance between the two locations and Števanovci /Apátistvánfalva,
one had to take the long and exhausting way through the forest. Orfalu and Kétvölgy
are the settlements my father – apart from Apátistvánfalva
- knows best. These two villages are closest to Števanovci
/Apátistvánfalva and since Orfalu and Kétvölgy
do not have their own churches and schools, one went to school and also to church in Števanovci
/Apátistvánfalva. “That’s
the reason why I predominantly know people from Orfalu
and Kétvölgy”, my father explains
to us. Sakalovci/Szakonyfalu is the next village we briefly show my father.
This village is more familiar to him because he had marched there from Števanovci /Apátistvánfalva
together with his friends several times in order to go to balls (proms) when
he was still in his teens. In contrast to Felsõszölnök
and Alsoszölnök, Szakonyfalu
is somewhat closer to Števanovci /Apátistvánfalva. „I remember very
well how a gypsies band from Szakonyfalu often
played their music when there were balls in Števanovci
/Apátistvánfalva”, my father
tell us with a voice expressing the wish to revive the good old times. We ask
him if this gypsies band spoke Hungarian only and he answered that they spoke
Porabščina, like the Slovenes from the
Raba region. The final stage of our short
trip through the Slovene Raba region is Slovenska Ves/Rábatotfalu.
Noticing the place-name sign Rábatótfalu
leaves an astonished impression on my father’s face. On this sign the “Monošter”
is written as well, and he remarks: “But we haven’t arrived in Monošter yet?” We explain to him that the
Slovene-speaking village Rábatótfalu had been joined to the neighbouring city of Monošter some years ago and that therefore “Monošter” is indicated already at the gateway
to Rábatótfalu. While passing by the
village restaurant of Rábatótfalu, my
father starts grinning. He has just remembered how he once walked to Rábatótfalu with his friends when he was
sixteen years old and wanted to fill his glass with soda in this very tavern
and, due to the big pressure of the soda bottle, splashed the innkeeper right
in the face. My father was really happy to
visit the villages of the Slovene Raba region, some of which he had not seen
for fifty years. “A lot has changed, new houses have been built, the
roads have been tared, but the church and the village restaurants still stand
on the same spots like fifty years ago. Furthermore, the inhabitants still
stop at these taverns in order to enjoy a small appetiser.” Pictures Tibor Horvat * The village name “Ùjbalázsfalu” is engraved on this
memorial stone. A part of Števanovci/ Apátistvánfalva used to be an autonomous
municipality called Ujbalászfalu (Otkovci), which was joined to Števanovci/Apátistvánfalva
later. |