On our last full day in Croatia, we spent the morning walking around Diocletian’s Palace in Split. The Roman Emperor, known for his persecution of Christians, built his retirement palace there between 295 and 305. According to our travel bible, Lonely Planet, the palace contains 220 buildings and some 3000 inhabitants within its walls. In the photograph above you can see outdoor cafes and other small kiosks set up in the shadows of the walls. That is what is the most amazing feature of not just Diocletian’s Palace, but all the other historic walled cities, that we visited along the Dalmation coast. They are not just relics to the past, but are the site of ongoing daily life. The corner tower of the palace, for example, house an art supply shop in its base.
Like Croatia, history also breathes in Hungary. The Fulbrighters all came to Debrecen for our April monthly meeting. You might recall that Debrecen is called the Calvinist Rome.
We toured the Debreceni Reformatus Kollegium and the Great Church. The Great Church dates back to the 16th century, as does the Kollegium (but because of fires over the centuries, both buildings have been rebuilt numerous times). The Kollegium has been a theological college since the Middle Ages and continues to teach about 450 day and boarding students, although the curriculum today is secular and in the liberal arts, rather than preparatory for the seminary. Debrecen has had an important role in Hungary’s struggle for both religious and political liberty. The National Assembly broke away from the Austria and met in the Oratorium of the Reformatus Kollegium. It is no accident that the great Hungarian hero, Lajos Kossuth, read the Declaration of independence from the puplit of the Great Church in 1849. And, in the latter years of World War II, Hungary’s postwar provisional government was declared in Debrecen. Both of these buildings are more than historical sites…they are places of living history. Students attend school, play soccer, and go out for ice cream. You can hear the bells toll on Sunday mornings as congregants go to weekly services.
We Fulbrighters also took a ride out to the Hortobagy, where we ate lunch in an ancient csardas that used to cater to merchants traveling on the salt road. We watched csikos and gyulyas wearing their traditional garb snapping their whips and working with the horses in a reenactment of life on the puszta, Hungary’s equivalent of the wild west. While this was catered more to tourists, I noticed that there was a group of Hungarians who were listening avidly to our guide describe the history of the region and its contributions of this group to Hungarian life.
I mentioned my visit to the cousins last month. Bernard and I stayed in my cousin Rita’s sons’ room. Their walls were decorated with one poster featuring the royal crests of Hungarian kings and another listing the family trees of all of Hungary’s royal rulers. These were mixed in with sports equipment and rock and roll posters. I think it is fair to say that Europeans in general, but small countries like Hungary and Croatia in particular, have a strong sense of national identity and this is intimately linked with their historical memory. I have often noted that many of my American students seem ahistorical. Despite having attended American schools for more than 12 years, few of my students have demonstrated a good understanding of their own past–this has been substantiated by alarming results on national educational tests. For most of them, history is lifeless and sterile. If only they could see and hear what we have witnessed during our brief tenure here. Their appreciation of history and of their own culture would be enriched in uncountable ways.
Thanks for tuning in and best regards,
Marcsi
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