At the time of resettlement in 1802, the house at 13 Main Street was already standing, and it was owned by bootmaker György Richter. In the middle of the century, it belonged to Dr. János Szabó, a doctor and “surgeon scientist”.
István Gömbös, a master gingerbread-maker, founded his business in Marcali in 1890, and in 1899 he bought the building in which he set up his workshop for making gingerbread, cooling ice cream and pressing wax. There was also a stable, a barn and an ice-pit in the yard. The profession was passed on to his son, István Gömbös Jr., who worked in the house in Rákóczi Street until 1963, then his widow, Mária Lángi pursued the craft in Petőfi Street until 1981. Nowadays, the equipment of the workshop can be seen in the permanent exhibition of the Marcali Museum.
On the site of the building demolished in 1964, a four-storey apartment building was built in 1975, which still stands today. The ground floor of the building once housed the offices of the State Insurance Company, the Kis Supermarket as well as the Drycleaner’s.
1.| Residential building and gingerbread workshop of István Gömbös (Photograph, 1935)
2.| An apartment building is being built in Rákóczi Street (Photograph, 1970)
3.| Panoramic shot of the eastern row of houses in Rákóczi Street (Photograph, 1970)
4.| Picture of an apartment building in Rákóczi Street (Postcard detail, 1981)
5.| Shops in the eastern row of houses in Rákóczi Street (Photograph: József Ilácsa, 2022)
6.| The apartment building in Rákóczi Street in 2022 (Photograph: József Ilácsa)
