Index – Culture – Found in masonry, renovating Miklós Horthy’s dining car

In terrible condition, like the first floor of a house by the lake, it was found walled in Senec, Slovakia. The Hungarian Telegraph Office published the news with this strong phrase last December, and the return of Miklós Horthy’s (1868-1957) special train, the Turán 9, which needs a serious renovation, returns to the Transport Museum.

The answer is simple: the governor of Hungary liked to travel on official trips to high-level protocol events on a special train. But His Majesty did so when he returned home to Kenderes or simply went hunting.

The special train, the Turán, witnessed important events. I walked through the XX. the most important sites of the first half of the 20th century, their existence was intertwined with the destiny of the nation. An artist and politician, an earl, and a church delegate sat at a table in his dining car. Champagne peeked from their furniture, they were joking and fateful decisions were made between the forks of the main courses. But lo and behold, history is like time: it devours everything. Everything you serve in your daily life. Food, laughter, drama, sighs, decrees and cars.

Lakeside room from dining car

The Turán train left Hungary in 1944. We could also write that history took it from itself, but that would not be true: towards the end of World War II, the Arrow Cross fled over them. The wagons only reached Czechoslovakia. Its last line is uncertain, but the dining car No. 9, for example, was also used by the Czechoslovak government for representation purposes and only became privately owned in the 1970s after it was scrapped.

When found in 2020, Turán 9 was the large room of a weekend vacation home in Senec, not far from Bratislava. As a floor level of the lakeside building of the settlement dotted with mining lakes, it preserved its memories, walled. He waited for it to pass.

We know from New Word coverage in Slovakia last September, of László Darázs, an external assistant at the Slovak Museum of Railway History, that the railway car in the parcel next to the station was previously thought to be the coach car . of its first president. The owner of the plot wanted to build a summer house and asked the staff of the Museum of Railway History in Bratislava if they were interested in the wagon that was there, they could take it away. It has no value to him.

Based on the chassis number, museum staff began researching what kind of car it was. It turned out to be a middle and middle class wagon, built in 1913, half in part. Based on the serial number, they realized that Miklós Horthy’s train called Turán was car number 9. Living room with dining room, table of eight carvings, kitchen and three bedrooms

– read in the report. In addition to the fact that in the wagon, where they once wiped their mouths with an apricot napkin and cut up game meat while sitting up straight, homeless people took shelter for a time and made valuable everything they considered valuable. For example, copper handles.

Held wagons

Now that the wagon is returning home with state aid and support, its renovation has begun and the Turán 9 has also recovered some important historical monuments.

One of them is when Miklós Horthy flew to Salzburg in March 1944, and then his car got out of one of the trains, which took him to Klessheim castle to meet Adolf Hitler (1989-1945) and negotiate the circumstances of the occupation. from Hungary. The vulnerability of the Hungarian delegation is demonstrated by the fact that the Germans landed in Hungary on March 19 before the Turán 9 could have returned home from Austria. He ran by two telegrams to Miklós Horthy so he left the train. One was the text of the telegram from Foreign Minister Jen Ghyczy (1893-1982), which was wrapped in a pre-formulated historical romantic code: “Let my wife know I’m okay.” That is, the Germans are occupying the country. The other message is already clearer: no one should stand in the way of occupation.

In its March 1984 issue, the Popular Front wrote about the end of the events of March 18, 1944:

The special train left at half past ten at night. At dinner served in the saloon, Horthy once again proved himself the great lord of the double monarchy, telling charming stories from the life of ancient Austria-Hungary.

Another significant event is the funeral of Lieutenant Governor István Horthy. Miklós Horthy’s son died at the age of 37 after his fighter plane crashed on August 20, 1942 during a deployment. His corpse was transported by Turán from Budapest to Kenderes, and His Majesty also laid the funeral cake in Turán’s dining car. In contemporary coverage of Hungarian Life (August 28, 1942) it was written:

Exactly at 11 a.m. At that moment, a cannon roar was heard, and at the same time, the local band on the boulevard began to sing the Anthem.

With these moments, the deceased deputy governor said goodbye to the country’s capital, and the Turán train descended from under the glass roof of the station onto the endless rails.

Kidney steak and cold bites

As for train meals, the Horthy family very much enjoyed their lunches and dinners on the Turán train. The menu included almost everything a mortal can imagine, all in luxury.

We can learn a lot about contemporary rail food habits Celementis Ervin dr. published in the newspaper Ujság on April 5, 1942. The journalist addresses György Puskás, chef de cuisine of the International Railway Sleeping Car Society, who received the Hungarian Silver Cross of Merit for the 25th anniversary of his service.

In times of peace, György Puskás was often commanded on the Orient or Saar express, but he also held a particularly important position: he was Miklós Horthy’s railway chef, “the chef de cuisine of the Turán special train.” The chef says in the report that the head chef’s job is to compile the menu before he leaves. He puts it this way:

The principle is generally not to prepare food that requires a lot of time and quiet. So, unfortunately, we have to exclude decorated cold foods from all of our diets, and we don’t do jelly-like things either. We have neither time nor space for them.

When preparing the menu, it is important that the passenger has a good soup, light meats and a delicious pasta. In the past, the restaurant car menu was more extensive, we also added a hot appetizer to lunch at home, and outside the meal began with a cold appetizer …

In other words, the Miklós Horthy started with cold sandwiches when they left the country, but according to the chef, the traveling public also especially liked the dishes called “à la”,

that are tastier, richer and are made by adding more raw materials are always more popular. Of the local delicacies, it is Tournedos à la Rossini or, for example, Cotelette de Veaux à la Richelieu. But there are also many followers of the beautiful chateaubriand. Uncover: Richelieu-style beef ribs are seasoned and garnished with mushrooms, tongue, Madeira sauce, peas and potatoes. Chateaubriand, on the other hand, reveals that we added French garnish to the grilled kidney steaks, such as: French fries, English green beans, peas, stuffed tomatoes, roasted mushrooms, artichokes, and many other similar delicacies.

Such a life took place on the Turán train, which constantly changed its image and the number of its trains between the two world wars. The fate of the wagons was really related to the fate of the nation, and if the staff of the Transport Museum completes the restoration of the Turán 9 dining car, entering its furniture we could understand something about what history means and what the past . Tell us.

Cover image: Index Photographer: Sóki Tamás