„Respect past in order to understand present and to work on future.”
When we designed the identity of our rural guest house, we focused on the individual, peculiar virtues of the Karancs-Medves land – being rich of cultural, historical, literary historical and ethnographical heritage – that represent real values. That was the reason why we chose the Europe-wide famous product of an old nearby stonemine, the cobblestone (macskakő) as denominator of our guest house. This vintage, classic cube-shaped, dark grey stone that was used to covering the streets of Budapest, Vienna, Paris, Sofia and many more European cities in the middle of the last century, was produced in the basalt stonemine „Macskalyuk” (=Cat Hole) of Somoskő. Cobblestone is a perfect trademark of the village, this name and the visual logotype we created together strengthen the power of our brand.
An interesting historical fact, that the Trianon-treaty closing World War I in 1920 annexed Somoskőújfalu – and also the cobblestone mine – to Czechoslovakia. Both were saved and given back to Hungary by the assistance of one of the foremost Hungarian otologists of the 20th century, the landowner of Somos, dr. Géza Krepuska. The professor made a successful auditory organ surgery on one of the English members of the Entente commission, who offered his help in reclaiming the territory from Czechoslovakia. On 23rd April 1923, as the last border revision of the Hungarian history so far, the Leauge of Nations annexed the two Hungarian villages, Somoskő and Somoskőújfalu back to Hungary.
The cobblestone having come home together with the stonemine of Somoskő has a strong familiar relation as well. The predecessor building of the guest house – that had been used as a family house for 60 years – was built by our dad/granddad, who worked as a miner in the local mine, similar to his brother, Uncle Pál Balázs, also called as the last „ritzer” (stonemason) of Hungary. Cobblestone is therefore more than a symbol for us: there’s past, love, respect and memory living inside it.