Mezokovesd

Located in northeastern Hungary near the historic city of Eger, the small town of Mezokövesd is famous for its folk art and unique cultural traditions. The people of Mezokövesd and its neighboring villages are known as the Matyó, a nickname whose origins is unclear but may related to the great Hungarian King Matyas. The Matyó were known as a hard-working agricultural people, and for their strong Catholic faith. They became famous at the end of the 19th century for their elaborate folk costumes, intricately embroidered textiles, and colorful painted wooden furniture.

There are two distinct types of Matyo embroidery:  that done on white background fabric and that done on black.  The former, worked on hemp or linen fabric, was used for bed linens and clothing.  The earliest known Matyo embroideries were the borders of bedsheets from the mid-1800's, done in red and blue cotton thread.  Motifs included stylized boots and birds, as well as flowers and spirals. Embroidery also started to appear on folk costumes in the 1870's, replacing the earlier simple geometric cross-stitch designs.  The young men's exaggerated long shirt sleeves were first decorated with white eyelets, and later embroidered with predominantly red leaves and flowers.  Shirts worn by bridegrooms were especially festive, with extremely wide and long embroidered cuffs. Yellow and green were the next colors to be added, and additional colors later still.  Today's embroidery is done mainly in satin stitch, but in the past a wider variety of stitches was used, including chain stitch and the distinctive Matyo "figure 8" stitch. 

Embroidery on black fabric was primarily done for the apron, or "surc", which was part of the folk costume for both young men and women.  Many of the motifs used in this type of Matyo embroidery were taken from the work of szur-makers and furriers.  (The "cifraszur" or embroidered frieze coat was an important element of Hungarian men's national costume, while the master furriers made appliqued and embroidered sheepskin coats and waistcoats often worn by women.)  The stylized roses and tulips commonly seen in Matyo embroidery were originally used by these master craftsmen.  The aprons were made of black satin or silk, and the embroidery was often arranged in rows, with little background showing between motifs.  This type of work is often called "szucsos" embroidery, in reference to the furriers, called "szucs" masters. 

Although most Matyo women and girls did embroidery, not everyone could draw.  The patterns were drawn on the cloth freehand, and this was done by professionals called "iroasszonyok" - writing women - or "rajzoloasszonyok" - drawing women.  They used a pencil for white background fabrics and chalk for black.  Many of the best writing women came from families of szur-makers or furriers, including the famous Bori Kis-Janko.  The modest thatched-roofed peasant house where she lived her whole life is now a small museum, where you can see samples made from her drawings and a couple of her surviving illustrations. 

The young women of Mezokovesd were very fashion conscious, and clothing styles along with their embroidery were always changing.  In the late 'teens and early 1920's, expensive imported store-bought trims began to replace embroidery on the aprons.  As more and more of these trims - called "ragyogo" or "glitters" were used on both the girls' aprons and the aprons that the girls made for their fiances, the town's clergy became alarmed.  A substantial portion of the families' income was being spent on these gold and silver-colored braids.  They tried regulating them, then barred those girls with too many "glitters" from church, then banned them completely.  On Ash Wednesday 1925 the distraught girls dutifully carried their treasured “glitters” to the town square, where they were burned in a bonfire.  The girls quickly came up with a remedy for their now-bare aprons:  they added rows of embroidery done in the same shapes and colors as the trims.

Matyo embroidery first gained national and international attention in the early 20th century.  It was featured in the Millenium Exposition in Budapest, and a few years later there was a "Matyo Wedding" themed opera ball in the capital.  Suddenly Matyo embroidery was all the rage, and Matyo women started to embroider for money.  They adapted their patterns for use on decorative pillows and table linens, and changed the motifs and colors to suit the public's taste.  At the same time, many poorer Matyo men and women traveled to distant parts to work as farm laborers, and they brought embroidery with them to sell.  Naturally, the embroidery the women did to sell was inferior to that they did for their own use.

Mezokovesd is still a famous folk art center, but today's embroidery is made almost exclusively for the tourist trade.  The table linens done on white fabric are decended from the old sheet-border and shirt-sleeve embroideries.  They tend to have more background fabric showing than the earlier pieces, and the motifs are almost exclusively floral. Most pieces have hand-crocheted edgings as well - the shirt sleeves also included crocheted sections, although it was a different style.  The articles done on black felt, and less-commonly black silk or satin, hark back to the embroidery done on aprons.  Although you can find plenty of Matyó embroidery in Budapest, it's worth a visit to Mezokövesd to meet the artists and to find the best selection and prices.

The photos in this article, originally published online in the early 2000s, were taken by the author (Donna Fenton) in 2001 with permission from the Matyo Museum.