In rural areas of Hungary, old farmhouses are often found, but their construction is still adequate today. These buildings are often listed as historical monuments, thus preserving the architectural features of the past, according to the landscape. The biggest challenge in renovating them is therefore the amount of money that needs to be invested and the need to use traditional building materials and methods, which are a consequence of the local protection, in a way that meets the needs of 21st century users. The Folk Architecture Programme was set up to support the renovation of listed buildings, providing state support for their authentic renewal and reuse.
This type of building, abandoned and condemned in a rural setting, has a huge untapped potential, as it is possible to obtain relatively inexpensive access to buildings that have stood the test of time. The renovation of such a house is expensive but worthwhile in many ways. On the one hand, the owner is preserving a piece of the past by renovating it, and on the other hand, the owner is reusing a building that has probably been vacant for some time, and therefore not taking additional land from the vacant plots, but bringing an existing building back into circulation.
In Tésenfa, the present owners found a typical farmhouse of Ormánság, built of adobe, with three parts, a porch and a 4700 sqm plot. The house, which is a local monument, was built in the mid-19th century with an atrium, a room and a kitchen, to which a pantry, a carriage house, a cellar and a barn were added later. At the turn of the century, the long building, which stretched out towards the courtyard, was extended with a room and a neoclassical façade. One of its most interesting features is the side turret, a rare sight there.
Originally, timber-framed plinth houses were built in the Ormánság, with the joists covered with wicker and plastered with mud. There are many buildings in the area that have not been touched for 100 years, left as they were after the war, without water, electricity or gas. As a result, they have been preserved and have preserved in their entirety a piece of the past.
