Following Debrecen’s cívis houses and their inhabitants – kultúra.hu
The book “In the wake of Debrecen’s cívisházak and their inhabitants” was published.
Although the memories of the cívis, i.e. the market towns of the Great Plains, are of peasant origin, but already civilian, can still be found scattered in many cívis of the country, especially the houses, the common language often tends to refer to Debrecen the to call it a civil town. Despite the flattering title, most of the traditional, ground-floor residential buildings characteristic of the Cívis people’s lifestyle have already disappeared from the city: based on a survey by architect Attila Harangi, in June 2018, a total of 1,540 traditional Cívis houses were still standing in the historic downtown, by December 2020, only 1,476 of these remained due to continuous demolitions. in terms of their characteristic character and technical condition, only one third of the houses represent a value that can be preserved.
Between 2019 and 2021, Attila Harangi and Viktor Löki documented the history of 21 townhouses in Debrecen and their residents. The basis of the book is a series of photos of the houses taken during the site visit and interviews about the history of their stay. The stories with a personal tone, learned firsthand from the current residents, are complemented by data from contemporary sources discovered during scientific archival research.
As an architect, Attila Harangi has been researching Cívis residential buildings for years. The preservation of these buildings in the historic city center was also at the center of his thesis. Biologist Viktor Löki, author of Streets of Debrecen, joined his work as a photographer in the same year.
The couple was born a week ago In the wake of the cívis houses in Debrecen and their inhabitants prestigious album and study volume not only approaches the topic from an architectural point of view, but also one of the very important parts of Debrecen.