Hungarian Decorative Painting

This entry is from the Hungarian Club site, see the post there for the full article.

Origins of the ancestral carved gates of Transylvania span thousands of years before [Christ] and transcend beyond the boundaries of the Carpathian Mountains to Mesopotamia and the Far East. Similar to the ancient "Silk Route" that connected Central Europe to the Far East...

This ancient art with a system of mythical symbols and richness of form is still practiced and still inspires Hungarian Szeklers of Transylvania in creating their home environment and preserving their traditions to this day. The "Székelykapu" had symbolic meaning which separated East from West artistically as well as geographically and politically

...Runic inscriptions on front of the gate "The Lord has brought thee here" while on the other side departing guests can read "The Lord be with thee".

[Ancient decorations from Ur had similar designs to]...motifs of Hungarian but especially Transylvanian Folk Art such as the upward scrolling or spiraling lines, tree of life, sun as central motif, runic symbols, five and eight petal rose, pomegranate and cornflower.
...In the top center under the roof and pigeon loft, the traditional sign of the sun, symbol of Úr is carved and under it the ancient greeting ISTEN HOZOTT.
...the main post which separated the large wagon gate from the small walk-in gate, displayed the family history in runic writing (rovás irás). Each generation added it's share of history and when all sides were filled, a new supporting post was hewn from oak and placed on either side of the walk-in gate. As runic writing became obsolete, the custom of carving family history into the gateposts also faded away. Besides the inherited symbols and decorations, only the greeting, name of the homestead builder and date of completion was carved into the gate and remains as tradition in our time."

Since these gates were a part of the estates with a wealthy class of family , they were fallen into disuse during the Communist times. Many remaining gates no longer had the painted colors that are shown in this photo.

"the Székely gates are a beautiful example of folk architecture. In 1920, after the Treaty of Trianon ceded Transylvania to Romania, many Hungarians left the region as refugees. For many, the destination of choice was Debrecen: a market town near to the new border. In addition, several faculties of the university in Kolozsvár, now Cluj-Napoca, were transferred into the university at Debrecen. As refugees, they brought only their most important possessions - often-times including their gates. Hence, Debrecen has quite a few of these old gates built into 1920s-era homes.- An American in Debrecen "

A pottery example of this region of Hungary:




photos from Wikipedia Commons.