Career
Several local legends are linked to him, and although the citizens of Miskolc are not superstitious, some traditions connected with the curses Bató laid on those who defy his will, remain. Bató was a wealthy wheat merchant. Borbala died in childhood, and Eszter was forced to marry a rich lawyer several years her senior.
She died not long after that, on May 13, 1867.
However, the church was allowed to ring this bell only once every year, on the anniversary of her death. Hence, the "Eszter bell" became the largest church bell in the city.
The inscription on it reads:
The bell was made in 1865 by Ignácz Hilczer in Wiener Neustadt, weighs 53 q 68 pounds and cost 4558 Forints."
Bató ordered that the door of his daughter"s room be opened only once a year, on the anniversary of her death. In 1975, when the original house was demolished for road construction, many accidents occurred on the work site.
A memorial room (with the original furniture) was later opened in a house on Kossuth Street, near the church.
In the 1990s, when a shopping mall was built close to where Bató"s house once stood, it was named Batóház (Bató House). Bató left a large sum of money to maintain the Wooden Church.